


In an alternate universe

by Socksrocker



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:12:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21964813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Socksrocker/pseuds/Socksrocker
Summary: Based off myparent work,I was just experimenting with the idea of what happens if my crazy optimistic reader meets someone grumpy like underfell Sans instead of the vanilla. I initially had no intentions to continue this, but damnit, I suppose I will.Sans is a hardass, but our MC has him wrapped around her crazy little finger.By the way, she's a pretty hardcore mage.xx Underfell Sans/ Red & Reader fanfic xx
Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 35
Kudos: 81





	1. Chapter 1

There is an iron smell in the air along with a choking atmosphere of fear. Not yours, but from its density, seems to belong to a group of people. You’re not a busybody, but… okay maybe you were a busybody. 

“Shall we check it out?” You reach out a hand to pet your little pet rabbit on your shoulder as you lock your cafe up for the day. The smell seems to be coming from a place nearby.

You wander around to satiate your curiosity and the first thing you notice is a skeleton dressed in red with a thick black fur-lined hoodie. When he turns to look at you, you notice that his left eye is flashing red and that he has sharp teeth, one of which is golden. 

“What are you looking at?” He growls at you from the alleyway. 

“Hmm… just you I guess.” You’re not afraid of him because you’re sure you can hold your own in a fight. Granted, he is rather huge and the blood splattered on his face does amplify how scary he already looks. 

You look away from him to survey the people lying by his feet. You recognise those guys. They were the usual runners of the local gang, the Black Spades. They used to be your rivals and you’d beaten them up a few times yourself when you were still a hot-blooded youth. They must’ve tried to mug this guy.

Hands in your pockets, you use your chin to point at the one he’s lifted by the throat, “You gonna kill him?” 

“Why? You gonna stop me?” Sans plays the tough guy, but he’s inwardly extremely confused. He expected you to turn tail and run away from him as quickly as you could, but you weren’t reacting like that. Hell, you weren’t even scared and were acting like nothing was out of the ordinary at all. Maybe you’re just trying to play hero.

You shrug, “Just curious. I guess you don’t have to answer me.” Suddenly, you hear sirens blaring from across the street and decide to warn him out of the goodness of your heart, “Cops will probably be here in a few minutes. You should make it quick if you are. See ya.” 

You salute with two fingers and turn around to leave because you don’t want to be involved in it.

“Hey wait-” Sans calls out, he hasn’t figured you out yet, and you could be a liability. He might have to silence you too. He came from a world where you either killed or were killed.

You lift up your hand in a peace sign without looking back, and round the corner you came from, disappearing from his sight completely. 

He’s contemplating going after you when you suddenly reappear again, except you’re running like your life depends on it.

“Hi there, bye there!” You call out as you run past him.

He’s totally stumped when he sees a police officer chasing after you from the distance.

“Stop running!” The police officer calls out as he chases after you. 

“Fuck!” He cries out as he dumps the guy on the floor and takes off after you. There’s no way he can let you go now since you’d definitely rat him out. Why was a police officer running after you anyway?

He sees you from a distance and teleports in front of you, causing you to squeal with shock. Where the heck did this guy come from? Did he just teleport? That was so cool.

You’re about to tell him to get out of your way, though, when he grabs you by the collar and the world around you disappears to black. By the time you open your eyes again, you’re in a strange messy bedroom. 

“Whoa, did you just teleport me?” You blink a few times, trying to reorient yourself.

He stares at you for a few moments in confusion, “Don’t cha feel like puking or nothin’?”

“Uh… no?” You furrow your eyebrows. “Anyway, thanks for the save. I’ll get going now!” You move to walk towards his room door.  
“Hold up.” He growls, remembering why he brought you here, “I can’t just let you leave.”

“What? Why not?” You place your hand on his bed, ready to turn it into a weapon or shield if you need to. 

“Yer a witness.” His left eye flashes, ready to attack. 

Cursing your impulsivity, you start to summon your magic as well, “So what? You gonna kill me too?” You should be frightened, but you’re filled with adrenaline instead, as your magic dances along your fingertips, “I’m up for the challenge.” 

Sans is almost beyond himself with surprise by now. He didn’t exactly plan to kill you. He’d just wanted to scare and threaten you into silence, and then he’d let you go. What kind of weird-ass human were you? 

You could tell that this skeleton wasn’t really filled with murderous intent towards you since you could feel his emotions through his magic. Things like these came naturally to you. You know he just wants to force you into silence, and that he might let you go if you pretended to cower in front of him, but your pride won’t let you do that. You decide to do things the hard way.

Summoning your magic, you turn his bedframe into a golem and make it attack him.

His mouth falls open with surprise but he waves a hand and throws it against the wall.

“SANS? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!” 

A voice comes from the main part of the house, as his eyelights? dart towards the door.

You toss a glance over your shoulder to the window behind you and realise that you’re only two stories up. Taking advantage of his distraction, you summon your magic and turn his floorboard to quicksand and trap him in it by turning it back to cement once he’s fallen halfway through.

Then, you turn his window into bubbles and parkour through it, coming to a semi-safe landing by rolling as you hit the ground. You have a few bruises and cuts but it’s nothing major. You get to your feet and take off without missing a beat.

Risking a glance behind you as you run, you notice that the skeleton hasn’t managed to come after you. Smirking at your victory, you continue running before you find a safe space to figure out how to navigate your way back home.

-

Sans is lying on his bed at the end of the long day.

Papyrus had come home early today, and he’d gotten in a fight with him when he saw the state of his floor and room. Sans winces as he rubs at his ribcage. It’d really hurt when you trapped him in the floor. How did you even do that and all those other things? He thought that mages didn’t exist anymore. Besides Frisk, of course. 

Rubbing at his skull with frustration, Sans tries to get you off his mind. He had so many questions to ask you, but to do that, he’d have to find you first. More importantly, he had to make sure you didn’t rat him out to the police. It definitely wasn’t because he was inexplicably attracted to you or anything. 

-

It’s been a few months since you met that crazy skeleton monster, and you’d avoided going past that entire area where you met him ever since. Today, however, you really want to eat the doughnuts from Muffet’s bakery and you can’t avoid walking past that alleyway if you want to go to the shop. You figure he’s probably moved on by now. If you were going to rat him out to the police, you would have done so ages ago. Unless he was an idiot, or had a lot of free time, he should know that and leave you alone. 

Locking your cafe up for the day, you walk past your motorcycle, hoping to pick up some doughnuts from Muffet’s. Just before you round the corner, you pop your head out to peek into the street, heaving a sigh of relief when it seems like the coast is clear.

“Who’re you lookin’ for?” 

A husky voice comes from behind you and you jump with shock.

Whipping your head around, You’re barely inches away from the skeleton and clutch your chest with fright. 

“Damn it!” You lament the fact that Muffet’s doughnuts were so delicious. You know that even if you could rewind time, you would still try your luck. You could only stay away from Muffet’s bakery for so long.

Cradling your rabbit to your chest, you try to make a dash for it and you do get a distance away before you feel yourself getting dragged back right in front of the skeleton.

“Teleportation AND telekinesis??” You shout in exasperation. That was so OP. How were you going to escape from this guy? Oh well, it was a shitty life anyway. 

“Ugh, I surrender. But before you kill me, can I have a doughnut from Muffet’s?”

“... A doughnut?” Sans raises an eyebrow incredulously.

“YES. They’re so damn GOOD.” You nod your head with a pained expression. You didn’t want to die before you got to try their christmas special peppermint chocolate filled spider glaze. 

Sans observes you for a solid minute, unsure of what to say to you. 

"Well?" You eventually break the silence first. You were never a patient person.

"Well what?" He growls. He's not used to being unable to read a person, and at this moment he can't even tell if you're just trying to distract him, or if you seriously asked for a spider doughnut as your dying wish. 

"Are you gonna kill me or buy me a doughnut first?" 

"Why d'ya think I'm gonna kill you?" He crosses his skeletal arms across his chest.

He's not? You sense his emotions through his magic and realise that he really doesn't have any killing intent. Instead, you can sense amusement, thrill and… attraction?

Well that was unexpected. What was wrong with this guy? All you did was fight him. Where did the attraction come from? Was he masochistic or something?

Raising an eyebrow, you answer him.

"Well if you're not going to kill me, then why are you here?" 

"... I have questions." Sans steps forward, planning on teleporting you somewhere more conducive for the chat.

"Whoa." You say, stepping backwards and out of his reach. "Are you going to teleport me again?" What if he teleported you to his house? If he changed his mind and killed you there, you'd never get your doughnut. 

"Yeah." He grunts, as he steps forward again to grab you.

"Hold up!" You cry out as you duck to avoid his grasp. "Can you ask me those questions at Muffet's?" You look at him with pleading eyes.

For reasons he can't explain, he teleports the both of you to Muffet's.

-

Sitting in the booth, you now have the Christmas special peppermint chocolate filled spider glazed doughnut in your hand with another 6 other flavoured doughnuts on the tray in front of you. You also got a cup of hot hazelnut latte for yourself and for the red guy in front of you. You wanted to bribe him to leave you alone.

The first bite into your doughnut almost sends you into tears because it's so damned delicious. You almost forget that you're sitting across a monster who could kill you in a split second. But that's also why you kind of give up. You're a mage alright, but it's not like you specialised in combat magic. You could outdo humans for sure, but what hopes did you have against actual combat type monsters? Zip. Nada. Zilch. 

Oh well, at least he wasn't hurting you. And he even paid for it all. Hmm maybe that bribe wouldn't work.

Although Sans said he had questions for you, he doesn't do much besides stare at you from the other side of the table.

"So what do wanna know?" You ask him in between bites. If all he wanted was to talk, you wouldn't mind. He **did** buy you doughnuts afterall. And your favourite latte.

Sans gets the most obvious question out of the way, "S'up with your rabbit?" 

"What?" 

"The one on your shoulder. Why's it there?" He points at it to emphasize his, ha, _point_.

"She's been my pet for a long time. Ever seen humans do it with birds?" 

He nods, he's seen it once or twice before. He's never seen a human do it with a rabbit, though. But he takes it at face value. It wasn't that important of a question.

You notice that he hasn't been eating, so you shove the plate of doughnuts to him. 

"Aren't you gonna eat one? Or maybe you wanna try the one I'm having?" You hold out your half-eaten doughnut as you lick your lips. "Here, try it!" You wiggle it enticingly. 

Sans leans forward slowly and takes a bite out of your doughnut. He doesn't break eye contact while doing so, which is a little creepy, but you don't back down from the challenge. 

"Why aren't you afraid of me?" He finally asks.

"Why should I be?" You toss the question back at him.

"Uh, cause' I could kill you?" You'd literally seen him standing in pools of blood, in the midst of killing a bunch of guys. You knew he could teleport people and toss things around, and although you didn't yet know about his gaster blasters and bone attacks, it should have been obvious now that he could snuff your life out like a light if he wanted to. Not to forget that he was a monster. They had political rights now, sure. But humans still tended to avoid them like the plague.

"But you're not." You say matter-of-factly. "You even bought me doughnuts." Reaching out for a second piece, you add on with conviction as you smile at him, "You're a good guy." 

Sans is confused. What the hell? He'd literally stalked and dragged you in here against your will but you thought he was a good guy because he bought you fucking doughnuts? Were you crazy? Well if you were crazy, he had to be crazy too because here he was, actually enjoying your company and this stars-forsaken conversation.

"You're an idiot." Is all he can say. 

You just shrug in reply. Your best friend would agree with him in a heartbeat. 

"So why'd you attack those guys?" You tried to stay silent and not invite anymore trouble, but you can't help your curiosity.

"Losers tried to jump me." He rolls his eyelights. "They think all monsters are easy targets." 

You figure they're the ones who asked for it. But you hope this also means this guy isn't just a crazy monster with homicidal tendencies. 

"So did you kill em?" 

"Not in time." He cracks a half grin, "Somebody led the cops right to me." 

"Oops." You giggle sheepishly, "I accidentally bumped into one. Some of the coppers remember me from my old days as a punk. They automatically assume I'm up to no good. Rude." 

"They recognise you? Won't that mean they'll pin the crime on you?" He doesn't know why, but he's worried he got you into trouble. Which doesn't make sense, considering he contemplated killing you himself.

"Nah, it's cool." You can sense that he's worried for you, which you don't try to understand. "They won't toss me in jail even if they think I did it." 

"Why's 'at?" 

You shrug, "Who knows."

He glowers, wondering if he should force it out of you but you meet his gaze head on with a smile. 

You were someone who would never bow under pressure. 

Lucky for the both of you, he decides to drop it.

By the time you finish eating the doughnuts, you realise he hasn't touched his drink at all.

"Aren't you going to drink that?" It was such a great latte going to waste.

"I only drink mustard." He says as he leans back on his chair, hands in his pockets.

"Mustard? Like the condiment?" 

"Yeah. S'the only stuff I touch." His eyelights flick to the corner. He knew that it wasn't even a monster thing, and that everyone judged him for it. But he didn't care. 

Which is why, when you hop out of the booth and come back with a new bottle of mustard, he raises a brow bone in surprise.

"Muffet sold me a whole bottle of it once I said it was for you. You must do this often." You laugh, amused that he actually wasn't lying. It was no wonder he smelled like it. It was weird to you of course, but hey, to each their own. You don't judge.

You both finish up your drinks as you make small talk, and then you ask if you can go. 

"Wait." He says, passing you his phone. "Give me your number." 

Uhhhhh that felt like a bad idea.

"I'd rather not…" You begin. 

"I'll buy you a box of the Christmas special." He throws in.

"What?! But they only let you buy one per customer per day!" That's how popular Muffet's doughnuts were.

"I can get it done." Is all he tells you. 

"Deal!" You grab his phone and type your number in as he saunters to the counter. You even put in your real number. If this guy could get extra access to Muffet's doughnuts, what more secret delicious treats could he unlock?

Anyway, he's an OP monster. You're sure he could track you down eventually either way. 

When he actually comes back with **two** boxes of the Christmas special, you're almost ready to sign your life into his hands. 

"Look." You press the dial button on his phone, which gets your own phone ringing. "That's my number." 

You move to trade the doughnuts for his phone, and he teleports you back to the alleyway. 

"Thanks for the doughnuts, skell!" 

"... Sans." 

"What? Oh yeah!" That's what someone called him back at his home.

"See ya, Sans! I already put my name in your phone." 

You wave goodbye as you walk back to your shop so you can grab your motorbike and ride home.

When you've rounded the corner, Sans takes his phone out and goes to his caller list. His finger hover over the button when he stops at your name: 

**Debby**

  
  



	2. Personal Space?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MC's pretty popular and she hates it! for reals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I wasn't planning to continue it, but sometimes.... an idea just won't let go of me. I might just continue it until they get together (clearly, the chase is my favourite part of every romance)

Sans has been lying in bed for hours with his hands on the keypad of his phone again.

It's been weeks since you gave him your number, but he’s had no reason to call or text you. He already feels stupid enough for asking for it, and will feel even stupider for being the first one to text you. 

He tosses his phone to the other side of the room with rage. "Fuck!" Was he a teenage child?? What was so hard about sending a text to a kid? He uses his magic to pick his phone up again to start typing.

-

**Sans**

_Hey, what are you_

_Hey what ar <<<< _

_ <<<<<<<<< _

_Hey there_

_Hey the << _

_ <<<<<< _

_Knock Kno << _

_ <<<<<<<<<< _

_-_

“FUCK!!”

He jumps and throws the phone in the air when it suddenly vibrates.

Checking to see who sent him a message, he pulls down the notification and taps on it.

-

**Debby**

Oh my god! Sorry, I totally forgot to press the ‘send’ button.

Thanks for your doughnuts! I wanted to share, but I ate them all on my own.

-picture attachment-

-

You sent him a picture of you chewing on a doughnut, with 2 empty doughnut boxes beside you.

He stares at your picture for a long while before saving it into his phone. 

-

**Sans**

Seriously? All 12 of them?

**Debby**

Hey, _doughnut_ shame me! Muffet’s doughnuts are literally to die for. Especially the season specials. I missed them so bad.

**Sans**

Ha. S'at why you were at the alley although you ditched it for months? 

**Debby**

Whoa, so you were keeping an eye out for me. 

**Sans**

Nah, s'just my usual area. Didn't see you around.

-

Sans tries to play it cool when he accidentally lets it slip that he’d been scouting the area everyday since the incident. It initially stated with a fear that you’d rat him out to the cops, where he watched and kept his eye on the case as they’d scrambled about trying to look for clues. 

When they didn’t come knocking on his door within the week, he knew they’d hit a dead end. After all, monsters didn’t leave any DNA behind that humans could use for tracking. Sure, this made it so that **every** monster was a suspect, but that also meant that they had no leads. With the victims being gang members themselves, none of them were willing to press charges. As such, the case had been dropped. 

-

**Sans**

Hey, you still there?

-

When you don’t reply after half an hour, Sans figures he probably blew it. 

Which girl wouldn’t be scared off after being told that a guy had waited in that area for months just to see them again? 

He had to admit that was fucking creepy. But he just couldn’t get you out of his head, and he didn’t know how else to find you. 

Suddenly, his phone lights up again and he tries to act like he doesn’t care while his eyes flick to the message notification. He scrolls to other applications on his phone before he reads your chat, although he actually can’t wait to see if it’s you and what you’ve said. 

What was he even lying to himself for? 

Regardless, he eventually taps on the notification and lets out a small breath when it is really a message from you.

-

**Debs**

Sorry! The cafe got real crowded for a sec. 

Oh yeah, I totally avoided the shop so I wouldn’t bump into you. But Muffet’s doughnuts had my name on it. Worth it.

**Sans**

Cafe?

**Debs**

Yeah, I work at a cafe. It gives me the creative freedom to do whatever I want and I get to talk to all sorts of people. It's a dream job.

**Sans**

Won't your boss kick you out for texting on the job?

**Debs**

Considering I own the place, it's possible but highly unlikely.

**Sans**

Wait, why is it possible? 

**Debs**

Cos I'm a hardcore slacker. 

**Sans**

Ha. Which cafe do you work at?

**Debs**

That information's highly classified.

-

Thrilled by the challenge, Sans pulls up all the names and locations of the cafes in the city and starts by narrowing it down to the general area near where you first met. That was easy, there were only 8 of them there. 

You’re cleaning up your shop for the day when you hear the entrance bell ring.

Raising an eyebrow, you watch as a smug skeleton dressed in red and black walks into your shop.

“Found ya.” He says with a grin. That wasn’t even hard.

Biting your lower lip, you’re about to explain to him the concept of personal space and boundaries when your old friend Mark walks into your shop too. Great, now there are two of them.

“Hey Debs!” He calls out, flowers in hand. 

“Those better not be for me.” You roll your eyes with a grin.

“Course’ they are! Happy birthday!” He hands them over as he walks to you.

Out of nowhere, Sans releases a growl. He didn’t know you were attached already. 

He doesn’t have a right to, but he feels jealous and wants the human male out of his sight. Or the face of this planet.

Mark immediately turns around and pulls you behind him, free hand going to the gun in its holster.

Meanwhile, Sans’ left eye flashes red and you suddenly worry for your beautiful shop.

“Okay, everyone chill out!” You immediately step back in front of Mark as you push the gun down and back into the holster.

Seriously, you really didn’t have the mood to deal with males of whichever species and their high levels of testosterone or whatever it was that male monsters had.

“Look, I need to clean up. So either you both get into the booth, sit down and make nice, or I’m kicking y’all out of here, if I have to die trying.” 

You glare at the both of them, eyes telling them that you meant every word that you said. 

After a brief moment of silence, Mark shuffles into the booth and sits down while Sans follows after him. However, he doesn’t sit with Mark as he walks past him and into a different booth.

Whatever, as long as you could keep blood off your clean floor, you didn’t care.

There’s an awkward silence in the front of your shop as the both of them sit there in complete silence. 

You try to drag out the cleaning process, but it does have to come to an end eventually. Groaning as you step outside your kitchen, you ask yourself what sins you’ve committed that you have to deal with this.

“Alright, Mark. What can I do for you?” You head to this guy first, since the other one seems harder to deal with. 

“It’s your birthday today, so I thought I could take you to dinner. I reserved a spot at your favourite restaurant.” He looks up at you with hopeful eyes, praying that you don’t reject him again like you did last year. And the year before that. And… okay so you’ve never actually agreed before.

Oh my god. What was up with these people and their forceful acts of kindness? Sure, you were touched that they wanted to do nice things for you, but still. Maybe they **both** needed a lecture on personal space and boundaries. 

It wasn’t that you didn’t like Mark. He was a real good friend to you, but he was like a brother. You had no idea why he just started chasing after you one day, and no matter what you did, he refused to give up or back down. Okay, maybe you did know. But you didn’t care. You wouldn’t mind going out for dinner with him when there were a whole bunch of others around, but especially on events these, you didn’t want to get his hopes up. But because he was a good friend, you felt bad no matter how many times you said no. Suddenly, you have a flash of inspiration.

“I’ll go for dinner with you.” You begin, and you watch as his eyes light up with disbelief and excitement. “But,” you continue, “This isn’t a green light for anything. I’m still not dating you, and it won’t just be the two of us. Sans is coming along.”

“What?!” The both of them cry out at the same time.

“I only made a reservation for two, though.” Mark tries.

“And I ain’t eating dinner w’no prettyboy.” Sans growls.

“Okay! Then, the both of you can go home now. Thank you for the flowers, Mark. They’re very nice.” 

You smile as you move to take the flowers out of his hands.

Mark wasn’t a monsterphobe, but he didn’t like the way this monster was looking at you. He could tell that this monster was attracted to you, but he watched you like you were simultaneously some sort of prey.

Sans felt likewise. He didn’t know Mark, but the comfortable way you two spoke and behaved around each other set him on edge. Although he knew now that Mark wasn’t your boyfriend, he was still flaring with jealousy and he didn’t like it one bit. He felt like he was on the losing end because he didn’t even know that it was your birthday today. Wait, Sans hadn’t even accepted the fact that he liked you yet. This frustrated him even more!

“Wait, I can try to change the reservation.” Mark backpedals. This was the first time you’d ever said yes, and he wasn’t about to blow his chance now. 

Sans is still hesitant, but he’s unwilling to leave now as well. He’s not sure what he came for, but it definitely wasn’t just so he could piss you off. 

“Fine, I’ll go.” Sans relents when you turn to look at him. He’s sure he’s going to regret this later.

-

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor unimportant point but I wonder if anyone caught the fact that she said she wanted to keep blood off the floor and not dust. Heh.
> 
> Noticed anything else? I love leaving little nuggets like these inside my novels.


	3. Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans one-ups Mark. Duh, he's a super OP monster.

Well. Dinner could have gone better. 

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to seat two alpha males at the dinner table across their current love interest. But maybe it didn't have to take the destruction of half the restaurant for you to figure that out. 

"Figure this shit out." Is what you tell the two guys that you've managed to shove out of the restaurant as you go back in to pay for the damages. At least nobody got injured. Cheers for positive thinking! 

When you turn back into the restaurant, Sans and Mark are glowering at each other. Although Sans dearly wishes to, he knows he can't just blast this prettyboy out of existence. But he's also not about to teleport out of there because that would be running away. Sans NEVER runs away.

"Have y'all made nice yet?" You come bobbing out of the restaurant, glad that they didn't ban you from it entirely. You did leave them a generous tip so that they could build it faster, and better too. It was an investment in your favourite restaurant. You may have dropped some hints about the possibility of building private rooms.

Looking at the two of them, it's obvious that they're not going to make up via normal means. 

You decide to drag the both of them to the nearest bar. 

"What are we doing here?" Mark looks at you and asks. He's known you for years, but every thing you do is still a mystery to him.

"We're playing I have never." 

"What? What for?" It's Sans' turn to ask. 

"You guys keep fighting because you don't know much about each other. So, we're going to get to know each other!" 

"First of all, that's a fucking stupid idea. And second, the fuck we gotta play it in a bar?' 

"People are friendlier when they're drunk!" You explain the obvious. It was a genius plan. "Every time someone loses, they have to take a shot."

"Uh, Debs, I don't think…" Mark begins. He's seen you drunk before, and he's not sure he can handle that again.

"Come on, It'll be fun!" 

"Yeah, you scared?" Sans goads.

"No way, but I'm just saying it's a bad idea." Mark glares at him.

"How bad could it be, pretty boy?" 

-

Famous last words. 

Sans uses his magic to grab the chainsaw out of your hands, but you're floating in the air along with it because you refused to let go. 

"Come on kid, you're going to get hurt. The fuck'd you get a chainsaw from this time??" Seriously. They'd already been battling you for the past hour as you wrecked havoc throughout the place. Or rather, Sans had been. 

As a mere human, Mark tapped out the moment chainsaws were involved. He's a distance away, ducked behind one of the pool tables. The shop cleared out during the 'exciting fireworks' phase that you created indoors to celebrate their new found friendship. At least Mark stayed through the 'naruto shuriken' phase, although he's still bleeding slightly from his arm.

"Hey, let go already!" Sans could forcibly drag you away from the chainsaw, but he's not sure how much strength he can use before it'd hurt. He's never had to be gentle with anyone before. 

"Mark, **do** something!" Sans growls. He's busy keeping you from sawing your own arm off by accident.

Mark comes back from across the room and jumps up to grab you by the waist and pull you down, but you manage to kick him off.

You laugh a little crazily as you swing yourself before letting go of your floating chainsaw. 

"WHEEEEE!" 

You squeal with delight before you come crashing down on Sans, where his momentary distraction causes the chainsaw to fall and bounce off the floor, landing dangerously close to Mark. At least it isn't turned on anymore. 

But someone is. 

After knocking Sans to the floor, you're straddled across his pelvic bone with your hands on his ribcage. It's an extremely suggestive position, but you're not in the right frame of mind to know what you're doing to the poor skeleton under you, whose blush lights up the entire bar.

After giggling crazily, you're suddenly extremely tired as you yawn and push yourself off him and roll to the floor. 

Maybe someone's saying something somewhere but that's probably not important as you curl up into a ball and fall asleep right there where you are. 

Kiwi, your rabbit, comes bounding back to you from across the room and snuggles tight into your arms.

"... Is it over?" Sans takes a deep breath to calm himself. Obviously, skeletons didn't need oxygen, but that didn't mean it didn't bring them any benefits.

"Yeah I think she's fallen asleep." Mark walks over and pokes you tentatively.

When he reaches into your pocket for your phone, Sans sits up and growls protectively. 

"Chill, man. I'm just calling someone to pick her up." Mark rolls his eyes. He's known you since you were a teen. Who was Sans to walk in and take **him** as a threat? 

As he unlocks your phone, Sans glowers at the level of intimacy you two share despite not being together.

"Who are you calling?" He asks, irritated.

"Her best friend. They live together." 

Fuck. Sans doesn't want the night to end just like this. It was so long since he last saw you, and he didn't know when you'd let him see you again. Grabbing your phone back from Mark before he can put in the call, Sans wraps an arm around you and teleports the both of you away as he points a middle finger in Mark's direction. 

Mark stares blankly at the area you both disappeared from before he cusses. Were you safe with that monster? What if he did anything to do? What if he raped you? Were the both of you friends? Shit. What could he even do to stop him? 

Meanwhile, Sans is holding your unconscious self and is in an open field somewhere in the world. 

He teleports a picnic mat from somewhere and spreads it out with his magic before placing you down on it. What was he doing? And with an unconscious human, no less? Sure, he'd forced you into Muffet's the last time, but this was blatant kidnapping. What if you hated him after this? From what he knew of you, you could be moved by soft methods but never hard. He loved the way your beautiful eyes shone with defiance whenever you stood against him, but he loved it more when you gave in. You were cold towards him, yeah. But at least you were giving him a chance. What if he’d just blown it?

Fuck. He plops down and sits beside you on the mat. What was wrong with him? Why did he care what you thought about him?

As he stares silently into the sky, you stir gently beside him, clutching Kiwi to your chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." You mumble as tears leak down the side of your face. 

He glances towards you and realises that you're talking in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare?

You continue mumbling a few more incoherent things before you suddenly sit up and shout, "Well I don't fucking care what you think!" 

Sans teleports a few feet away in shock as you blink a few more times and rub your eyes. Where were you?

Suddenly, you look up into the sky and what you see takes your breath away. 

Were those… auroras? The way the lights danced over the sky caused you to forget about your current predicament and all you could do was stare. This was the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your whole life.

"Pretty, ain't it?" A low voice comes from beside you.

"Sans?!" You lean away in shock when you're face to skull with the permanently grinning skeleton. "Damn it, I knew it had something to do with you!" 

"Yeah well, ain't you enjoying it?" 

You give him a chance considering it's his first time.

"Okay bro, you gotta listen to me. Good intentions don't always mean you're doing a good thing. Forceful acts of kindness ain't kindness. Like... teleporting my unconscious body away from my country to see the auroras? Good intentions? Hell yeah. Should you have done it? Uh, no. Would I have loved to see it had you offered me the opportunity? Proooooobably yes."

"But you'd never agree to come here with me alone." Sans retorts.

"Then if you knew that I wouldn't choose to do this, why'd you force me here?" You cross your arms over your chest and stare at him as Kiwi lies comfortably on your lap. 

Sans grits his teeth. He didn't think about it that way. Stars, he didn't think at all. He just wanted to spend more time with you, but not like this. He didn't want to fight with you, but why were you always mad at him? He didn't get it!

He wilts under your gaze and his eyelights flick away. 

You check your phone for the time to see how long you've been gone, and find 30 missed calls from Ashley and another 60 from Mark. 

You shoot an annoyed glare at Sans as you run your fingers through your long highlighted hair with a groan. 

You figure you'll call Ashley first 

She picks up on the first ring.

"Hi Bestie!" You call out in a cheery manner, hoping she doesn't kill you tonight.

"Where the fuck are you?!" 

"Not a clue, but don't worry. I'm safe! I'll explain everything once I'm back." 

"You better not be lying to me. Mark came over in a wild panic and he's already sent out the entirety of your old gang to look for you."

"The Aces?! Oh god. Is he still there?" You can hear the remaining traces of panic tinted along Ashley's apparent rage.

"Yeah, hold on." She hands the phone over to Mark.

"Debs?!" Mark calls out anxiously.

"Whatsup my bro." You reply, "Sorry for the trouble… and the mess." You wince, recalling something about a chainsaw…

"The only one who should be sorry is that fucking skeleton." You toss a glance over to Sans, who'd let out a low growl and looks like he has half a mind to snatch the phone from you and tell Mark exactly what he thinks of his comment.

You stop him with a pointed glare. 

"Thanks for keeping an eye out for me." You can't believe he'd activated his entire gang to look for you. You had to admit that was really sweet. Although it wasn't really effective considering you're halfway across the world right now. Not his fault this skeleton defied human logic.

"I'm just glad you're safe." Says the voice over the phone.

"I'll be home soon, I owe you." It's not even your fault that Mark activated his gang, but you still feel so bad! You hated owing anyone anything. 

"You owe me nothing, doll. I'll see you." 

"See you." 

You end the call.

Sans' jealousy is battering against your soul and you rub your temples, trying to stem the headache that you know is coming. The stronger the magic user, the more their emotions affected you. Why did Sans have to be such a powerful monster? Humans barely affected you since they had little to no magic power. You hug Kiwi closer to you, hoping that she'll block out more of his emotions. 

Tilting your head back up to the sky, you continue to watch the auroras.

"Hey, why do you like me?" 

Sans is taken aback by your straightforward question.

"Who says I-" 

"Do you not?" You turn to look at him, unsure if he's unaware of his own affections towards you or if he's just denying it. 

"Don't know what yer talking about." He grunts, eyelights flicking to the side. 

Humming, you stand up and pat the back of your jeans. 

"Can you take me back please?" You tilt your head to the side. 

Sans is about to reject your request when you add on, "Unless you want to make some sort of romantic confession here or something?" You tease with a wiggle of your eyebrows.

He rolls his eyelights as he teleports you back to your shop with a grunt.

"Can't teleport you home." He explains when he sees you looking at him quizzically. "Don't know where you live and've never been there." 

You nod your head, pleased that he wasn't as big of a stalker as you pegged him to be. Well, unless he was lying. 

"See ya around, Sans." You nod goodbye as you slide your helmet back on and ride away.

When you arrive back home, Ashley and Mark are seated across each other in the living room, and Mark stands up and goes over to you immediately once you open the door.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?" His eyebrows are furrowed together as he holds you by your arms and looks all over you.

"My eyes are up here, buddy." You tease as you laugh. He was like a lil’ puppy. 

"I'm fine, nothing happened." You look at him and he looks tired as hell. "You should go home and get some rest. Let me take you out to a meal sometime to thank you." 

"For what?" Mark is surprised. You'd never taken the initiative to ask him out before.

"I feel bad, though it wasn't my fault. Hey, I'm not responding to your advances or anything, just so we're clear." You punch his shoulder when you feel his ebbing excitement. 

"Yeah, yeah." He forces himself to calm down. "I'll text you then?" 

"Cool, see you!" You wave goodbye before you plop yourself down beside Ashley.

"Whatsup Ash?" You ask, not daring to look at her.

"Tell me. Everything." 

You tell her everything that happened, starting from when you first popped your head into the alleyway and met Sans for the first time. Your voice gets softer and softer as your story progresses.

"YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT!" She cries out with frustration as you hop over and hide behind the sofa you were sitting on.

"I am, I am." You pop your head back over the sofa and nod like a little chick.

"Well what are you going to do now?" She asks you after she's taken a few hundred deep breaths to try and calm down.

"Not a clue. Maybe he'll kill me. It was a cruel life anyway. Goodbye Ash. You were the only sunshine in my shitstorm of a life." You cry out dramatically as you flop down flat on the sofa.

"What did you say?!" She pounces on you and slaps you on the head.

"I'm kiddingggggg." You whine, clutching both hands to your head. "I'm sure it'll be fine." 

"Based on what?" She glares at you.

"My optimism and willpower." You grin smugly at her as she takes a cushion and throws it in your face. 

You know she's worried about you, but you genuinely have no idea what's going to happen next. It's not like you had experience with a super OP monster's heavily denied affection for you. 

What was the point of thinking about it? Life would happen as it wanted, and you'd take it as it'd come, like you always did. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, I'm sure it's clear to anyone who came from my parent novel that while our precious MC is naturally drawn to vanilla Sans, red Sans is going to have to work a L O T harder. But i'm digging the chase.
> 
> Enough of this for the moment, I'm going back to my parent novel!


	4. Something in common

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and his bro ain't the best pals

When you’re riding on the way to work in the morning, you suddenly decide that you and Sans need to have a little chat. Detouring, you ride your motorbike back over to where you remember his house to be. 

Parking your motorbike in front of it, you note that his window hasn’t been fixed yet as you move to knock on his door.

Raising your hand to the door, you hear shouting coming from inside the house before you make a sound.

“I can’t believe you forgot to buy more pasta! How useless can you be!”

“Bro, come on, I-”  
“What did you just call me?!”

You hear the sounds of a crash and a fight, so you dissolve the doorknob and open the door to see a tall and long skeleton covered in red and black. He has jaggedy teeth like Sans, and is wearing tight black pants, red gloves and… is that a red scarf too? In this weather? 

“B-Boss.” Sans forces out. You can tell that he hates calling him that.

The one you assume to be Sans’ brother summons a long reddish bone as he closes in on Sans.

“It seems that I, the Great and Terrible Papyrus, have to teach you proper manners!”

You watch as Sans starts to shake and break out into a cold sweat and decide that that’s far enough. 

Summoning your magic, you send it through the floor and change (who you now know to be) Papyrus’ bone into a bunch of raw uncooked spaghetti instead, just before he swings it at Sans.

“What is this?! Why are there pasta noodles?!” Papyrus stares at the noodles in his hands with incredulity.

“Alright slenderman, stop bullying my friend.” You walk over to Sans, whose eyelights have dilated to twice its original size as he looks between you and Papyrus. You can feel his waves of panic and you don’t know if it’s because he’s worried for your safety, or if he’s worried that you’ve caught him in such an embarrassing situation. 

“A HUMAN?!” He stares bloody murder at you as he summons multiple reddish bones around the room, all of which you turn into harmless soap bubbles and various different coloured rubber ducks as you dodge. 

Papyrus calls out in disbelief as he turns to Sans, "You made another human friend?! A mage?!" 

You pick up the rubber ducks and decide to turn them into more pasta noodles instead and toss them to Papyrus, who catches them offhandedly.

“You got your pasta, can you stop fighting now?” 

He stares at the pasta, unsure how to react before he narrows his eyes at you with suspicion.

“HMPH. Why are you helping the lazy bones? Do you pity him?” 

You feel shame radiating off of Sans, and subconsciously feel protective against this cruel brother of his. Guess you weren’t the only one with a shitty family.

“There’s nothing to pity, except for the fact that he has a brother like you.” You glare at him. Suddenly, things have become personal.

“What did you say?!” Papyrus summons his magic and drags you right in front of him. He lifts you up to his eye level and you’re pumped too full of adrenaline and rage that you don’t even regret your actions or words. 

“You heard me. You keep putting him down and making him feel bad about himself. What kind of brother are you?”  
“You don’t understand a thing.” You can feel his magic cackling in the air around you. “It’s a harsh world out there, and Sans needs to be strong enough to survive. Compassion makes him WEAK.”

“Say what you want, but you’re wrong. Sans is the most powerful monster I know.” Granted, you don’t know many monsters, but he’s really OP to you. “And even if he isn’t, so what? That’s still no way to treat your family. You’re just projecting your own insecurities onto him.” 

Papyrus whips a hand to your neck and squeezes tight, blocking off your airflow. 

“You have no right.” He growls. 

Your face turns blue from your lack of oxygen, but you don’t stop glaring at him as you try desperately to reach for your magic. 

Kiwi pounces right at him and into his eyesocket, causing him to freak the hell out and release you.

Freed from his magic, you fall to the floor, gasping for breath. Well, that was a close call.

By the time you catch your breath, Papyrus has dug Kiwi out from inside his skull and she slips from his grasp to land on your shoulder. 

Magic dancing around your fingertips, you pose, lightheaded but ready for his next attack, when Sans grabs you and teleports the both of you out of there. 

You find yourself in your shop, and you’re panting from the overexertion. You realise with a laugh that you’re a little out of shape.

“M’sorry.” Sans mumbles beside you. 

You turn around to look at him, and he looks really bad.

You figure he’s probably feeling guilty that he couldn’t step in to help you earlier. He had the strength to fight Papyrus, you knew that, but he didn’t do it. You don’t blame him, though. You’re all too familiar with the fact that there are some people that can condition you so well that you don’t dare to rise up and fight back even when you know you can. The fear that comes with that is deeply rooted and subconscious. It’s not something that can be explained away with logic, even if you realise it's happening to you. 

You look at him and grin, “Family can be shit.” 

Plopping yourself down on the chair, you rub your neck subconsciously as you wonder what to say next.

“...You remind me of someone I know.” He says, “Cept’ sometimes they did the opposite of rescue me.”

“What?” You raise an eyebrow, unable to follow the conversation.

“... Nothing. Hey, d’ya really think so?” He asks, his low voice barely a whisper.

“Think what?” 

“That I’m not weak.”

This is the first time you’ve ever seen Sans so insecure.

“Course’ you’re not.” You rest an elbow on the table in front of you and lean your cheek into your open palm. “You know, sometimes people tell you bad things about yourself, but it’s really a reflection of them more than it is on you.” 

He looks at you with furrowed brow… bones? He doesn’t know what you mean.

“Look, just because your brother keeps calling you weak, it doesn’t mean that you are. And even if you are, does it really matter? And if it matters, then how much does it matter?”

“If you’re weak, you die.” He says plainly, disagreeing with you completely.

“The strong die too.” You point out. 

“My point is, people are always out to make you feel bad about yourself. Why let them? You are you, and that’s all that matters. Everyone has good and bad points. Like, I’m just a weak little human.”

Sans rolls his eyelights when you say that.

“But who cares? Although I’m weak, at least im kinda cute!” You pick Kiwi up and wave her paw at him while you blink exaggeratedly, hoping to lighten the mood.

Sans is silent for a long while before he chuckles, “You're weird.”

"The good kind of weird, though!" You smile, glad that he's feeling better.

“I gotta open up my cafe for the day.” You stand and walk to the front of your shop to unlock the door and bend to pull the shutters up. “You’re welcome to stay.” 

“Fer real?” Your invitation was completely unexpected.

“Yeah! If you don’t have anywhere else to go, you can always come here.” If you were in his shoes, you know you would appreciate being anywhere but there. “As long as you stay out of my way.” You turn around with a wink.

As he settles down into the booth, you reach under your counter and toss something at him.

“Heads up!” You shout.

He looks up as his magic surrounds the brand new bottle of mustard. 

Taking it in his hands, he doesn’t understand the warm flow of magic he feels pouring out from his soul that makes him want to cry. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAMNIT RED, RELEASE ME FROM THIS PRISON.  
> VANILLA SANS IS BECKONING ME.
> 
> I swear, I have no intentions to continue writing this, but every time i start planning how i want my parent novel to go, I suddenly have a flash of inspiration for red and I. can't. stop. /cries/


	5. A giant middle finger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our poor boii needs some TLC okay?

Sans is using his magic to help you carry the bags of flour on another grocery run. He's been taking you up on your offer of chilling at your cafe, which of course you don’t mind, but you made him useful. 

"I feel like a pack mule." He fake grumbles as he trudges along beside you. 

You give him a light punch on his shoulder, giggling, "Come on, you're a big help." You say as you ask him to pick up a few bags of sugar and some baking powder.

"Eew, who let the monster in here?" 

A scratchy voice calls out beside you. She didn't bother keeping her voice low either, so you know exactly who it is. You look over at Sans to see his eyelights flicker out, but he doesn't say anything as he slowly lowers the items to the floor.

"I don't think I heard you right the first time." You smile as you walk over to her. "What did you say?" You look her dead in the eye.

"What? Are you a monster fucker?" She rolls her eyes, but you know she's secretly nervous because she didn't expect you to confront her.

"Apologise." You step closer to her, smile getting sweeter.

"F-For calling you a monster fucker?" She falters, eyes darting from you to Sans.

"I don't really care what you want to call me, okay? But I'm going to need you to apologize to my friend." You lift up an arm, thinking to rub your nose, but she takes it as a threat and shoves you hard, sending you crashing into a stack of cans. One of them scratches you, giving you a deep cut on the side of your cheek.

Sans growls from behind you but you raise a hand to stop him. He’d be on the losing end if he got involved. You could handle this, no sweat.

"Hey lady." You bite back a curse as you wipe some blood off the side of your cheek and grit your teeth. "You're obviously crazy, but I'm still going to need you to apologise. Or I'm going to get you back for that. And. More." Your voice lowers with every step you take and she knows that you’ll go through with your threat. Hesitating, she looks around at the small crowd that is slowly gathering and whispering in your direction. 

"No way in hell." She says as she starts to back away. However, when she turns to leave, she walks right into a security officer. 

"Is there a problem?" He says.

"Yes! It’s a good thing you’re here. The lady and that monster threatened to hurt me! You should kick them out of the store immediately." She shoots a glare at you as she spits her venemous slander. Well… okay it was technically true.

You cross your arms and amusement colours your gaze as you watch, interested to see how shameless this woman can be. 

"That's not what I saw." The guard says as he glances at you. Suddenly, he does a double take and it looks as if he realises something. He's about to speak when you shake your head subtly at him and mouth the word "no". 

He immediately stiffens and turns to the lady, "If you know what's good for you, I suggest you apologise right now." 

"What the-" She looks between the both of you and smirks, "You guys know each other, don't you! This is blatant favoritism." 

"You obviously shoved her." He furrows his eyebrows, eyes taking in the cans on the floor and the cut on your cheek.

"Only in self defense! She was threatening to hurt me and I was scared!" The crazy lady continues to ramble on and the security officer decides to stop wasting time.

He snorts and speaks into his walkie talkie. 

"Hi Gerald, we need you here in the basement immediately. Code white." 

In less than a minute, the security officer's boss comes rushing in along with the owner of the mall. You shoot them both a pointed look and they nod subtly in return. 

"Are you in charge of this one? How do you train your staff?! He's obviously with this monster fu- lady over here! He didn't even know the whole fucking story, but was so obviously on her side. Pets aren't even allowed in here but I didn't hear him say a thing about that. Is this how you treat a loyal customer? I've been shopping here for years! I'm going to tell all my friends about..." The lady immediately starts cursing and swearing when she sees the both of them. You half smile, hands cradling Kiwi while wondering how some people can be so entitled.

The head security officer is the one to speak, "Hey." 

He whips out a pair of handcuffs and slaps it on her wrist before she can react, turning her around immediately to slap it on the other as she screams.

"We train our staff perfectly well here. To me, it’s clear as day. You're under arrest for assault and have the right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you."

"What is the meaning of this! How dare you!" The lady screeches and cries out as she's shoved forcefully out the doors.

The owner of the mall walks over to you nervously and asks if you're okay. He offers you any items you require from this store for free as compensation and wants to take you to the doctor to dress your wound.

You reject his offer to go to the doctor but accept the compensation so he doesn't assume that you’re holding a grudge. After you thank him, you walk back to the agitated Sans. 

"Let's go, skelly. We're behind schedule." 

"That guy's still staring at you. Who’s he?" He glances to the owner of the mall who’s lingering nearby, watching you nervously. 

"Oh, just one of the bosses." You mean the bosses of all the bosses here.

"He looks real scared f'ya." 

"Customer reviews are everything, these days. People like to sue." You say casually as you walk towards the egg aisle, past the crowd that has gathered to watch the show.

Sans picks the things back up with his magic and follows after you.

"Why'd you stand up for me? I'm used to it." He says softly, as if ashamed that you were dragged into his mess.

"You really shouldn't just let people put you down." You pick up a few bags of chocolate chips and toss them over to him, where he catches them effortlessly with his magic. "Though, honestly, it really doesn't matter what they think of you. I just hate it when people mess with my friends. Especially in front of me." 

You're walking in front, so you don't see him blush a deep red.

"Didn't expect her to shove me though! She's lucky she's a woman because I don't hit girls. On the bright side, hehe, everything we buy today is free! Ooooh." Your eyes shine when you see the alcohol aisle nearby and turn around to start walking backwards. "We could grab some alcohol." 

"No way!" Sans eyelights flicker out when he remembers the disaster. He hates to admit that Mark was right back then.

Suddenly he stops walking. 

"What's wrong?" You ask, coming to a stop as well.

His hand reaches towards your wound before he remembers himself and pulls back, shoving his hands in his pockets instead. He’s a full head taller than you, so you have to tilt your head back in order to look at his eyes. You suddenly realise how big he is. How does a skeleton get that big?

"You shouldn't have let her hurt you." He growls to the floor. 

He doesn't know what he's feeling and he can't understand why you did it. Nobody had ever defended him before. 

Stars, he'd be grateful as long as they weren't the ones hurting him in the first place. 

Back underground, he was hated because of Papyrus. He'd watched as Papyrus tortured and hurt innocent monsters, and he'd been hated for his association. 

He'd gotten used to it. Used to being on the receiving end of things like this. Used to being spat on, detested, left alone. What he **wasn't** used to, was you. Twice now you'd defended him, and twice you'd gotten injured because of him. 

… Twice now he'd been too fucking useless to do anything about it.

You don't know what's running through his mind as he looks at you, but you can feel his internal battle.

Smiling gently, you pick up the closest bottle of vodka and shake it, "Come on Sans, I’m totally fine. They can hurt my body, but they'll never hurt my _spirit_!" 

When he doesn't laugh, you sigh.

"Come on, that was funny!" You put the bottle back down and punch him lightly on the shoulder as you walk over to the counter. True to his word, the owner leaves instructions for the cashier to bag your items without accepting your money. 

Sans is silent all the way back to the shop, and you let him stew in his thoughts.

"Bye, Debby." He says, once he's done helping you clean up at the end of the day.

"See you again tomorrow?" You smile. You're getting used to seeing the skeleton everyday since you invited him here.

"Maybe." He grunts as he blips out of there.

But he doesn't turn up the next day, or the next day, or the next. 

He's also slow on his texts and won't pick up your calls. 

He's had an excuse for every question you toss his way, and by the end of the second week, you've just about had enough.

Revving your motorbike, you speed over to his house and park your motorbike downstairs. You're not interested in dealing with Papyrus, so you scale up the side of his house and flip through the hole where his window used to be.

Sans is in his room sleeping when you pick up one of the pillows off his floor and toss it in his face.

"Wha-" he sits up, left eye flaring until he sees that it's you.

"D-Debby?!" His eyelights immediately flicker back on as he rubs at his eyesockets in shock. "What are you doing here?!" 

"Tell me why you're avoiding me, Sans." Your cross your arms and tilt your head while staring at him.

"I'm not." He looks down to his sheets, refusing to meet your eyes.

You cross his room and sit on the only empty space on the floor, beside what looks to be a little trash tornado. You're not moving till you get an answer.

His eyelights flicker to the hole in his wall and to you, and its clear what he's thinking.

"Try it. I'll just keep coming back." You smirk, eyes challenging him.

Sans groans as he lies back down flat on his back. You were nothing if not stubborn. After a few more minutes, he breaks the silence.

"How's your cheek?" His voice is a low grumble.

Your cheek? Was that what this was about? 

Raising your eyebrows in surprise, you answer him.

"It was just a scratch, it's probably healed already. It won't put a dent in my ravishing good looks!" 

After another moment of silence, you walk over to sit on his bed.

"Hey what are you-" He blushes a deep red when you take your shoes off to climb onto his blanket.

"You're killing me man, don't leave me on the floor!" You whine as you cross your legs. "It's comfier here." 

He averts his eyes from you and turns his whole body away in response after covering himself fully with his blanket.

"Rude." You pout as you poke him. 

All you get is a grunt in reply.

"...Are you really not going to tell me?" You ask after another long moment of silence. The sky has turned dark by now and you're not sure if he's fallen back asleep since you can't see his face. 

When he still doesn't answer you, you decide it would be selfish to force him any longer. 

Slipping your shoes back on, you walk back towards the hole in the wall. Tossing another glance back to the bed, you laugh a little at his burrito-shaped lump under the blanket.

"Goodbye, Sans." He has his own demons to fight, and you have no reason to be a part of it. Especially not if he doesn't want you there.

Summoning your magic, you use some of the remaining wall to rebuild his window before hopping back onto your bike and leaving.

You don't notice Papyrus watching you ride away through the window in the living room. 

When you've gone quite a distance away, Papyrus makes his way up to Sans' room and knocks on the door. 

"Sans?"

"B-boss?" Sans sits up and goes over to the door immediately. What was going on? Papyrus had never knocked before.

"Sans, I saw the human leaving your room-" 

Sans' eyelights immediately flicker out as he worries that Papyrus is going to hurt you again.

Papyrus notices the fear in Sans' eyes and says, "Do not misunderstand. I mean her no harm." 

Sans eyes suffuse with suspicion as he furrows his eyebrows in confusion. What did he mean?

"The human was… right. Life is different here. And even if it wasn't, I fear that I may have been the one hurting you the most in my efforts to keep you safe." Papyrus places a hand on Sans' shoulder. "I.. apologize... Brother." 

Sans' eyelights widen in shock. Did Papyrus seriously just say that? What had gotten over him?

"I do not mean to be so straightforward, but you were depressed underground, brother, and I knew it. Granted, I may have contributed to most of it… HMPH. But I noticed that you had, until recently, been getting better. You left the bed and the house, and you actually started smiling randomly to yourself. I also heard that you had even been **productive** in a cafe! The Human's cafe..." Papyrus then takes his hand off Sans' shoulder as he frowns, "But you started locking yourself up in your room again, and now, the human has even paid you a visit. Seeing how she has created a giant middle finger in the middle of our lawn before leaving, it must not have been a good one. Are you fighting with the human, Sans?" 

"W-we're not fighting." Sans stammers, not entirely sure how to react as he looks out his new room window to see what resembles a giant hedge trimmed into the shape of a middle finger. You were angry, alright. 

"HMPH. It is alright if you do not wish to tell me, but if you should change your mind, I, the Great and Terrible Papyrus, will do my utmost to help you make up with the human." Papyrus looks at Sans as he points to his chest with a thumb.

"...Although I may have to make up with her first myself." 

"Thanks, Boss." Sans replies wearily.

"Please, brother. There is no longer any need for formalities." Papyrus looks at Sans with raised brow bones, eyes urging him to address him again. 

"Thanks... bro." Sans says tentatively, shoulders tensing.

"Fantastic! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus laughs as he turns to go, closing Sans' door behind him.

Dazed, Sans walks back to his bed and he turns his phone on to see 40 missed calls and a whole bunch of unread messages from you from before. You hadn't texted him since you left his house, though. 

He closes his messenger app and stares at his wallpaper, smiling at the empty doughnut boxes in the corner while he runs a thumb over the screen absentmindedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope yallz are enjoying this!


	6. With or without you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans decides he needs to stick around

A week later and Sans is pacing around his bedroom again, about to wear a hole through the floor. 

Should he go to the cafe to look for you? Or should he continue to stay away? He had avoided you because he didn't want to continue causing you hurt. You were such a kind soul that he didn't know how to react to you. He didn't know how to react to his feelings for you. 

He didn't expect you to show up at his place demanding an explanation. But maybe he should have. He knew that you were so stubborn that you always had to get what you wanted. You hated not being in control and not knowing what was going on. There was no way you had come to his place because you were worried about him or anything like that . That was impossible. 

Stars damn it all. Why were you so hard to ghost??

He missed you. His soul ached for you. A human. Why did it? It didn't make any sense to him. The longing that he had tried so damn hard to stem had been set aflame when he saw you again. Especially when you took off your shoes and were wearing those fucking socks. In his bed. Beside him. **Socks**. He knows you didn't know they were scandalous skeleton underwear, but he almost lost his soul that night. Along with his self-control.

He'd been fighting his longing for you all week. But what now? 

Was he supposed to just suddenly show up? Would you still be mad at him? You didn't text or call him a single time after that. He glances at the giant middle finger still outside on his lawn as he thinks. 

Maybe he could get some kind of peace offering. You were a sucker for monster snacks. You'd only be mad for a moment. You were like a little kid, so easy to placate.

After a long moment of going back and forth, Sans finally decides to pop into your cafe and just deal with the consequences. 

Holding a box of spider doughnuts that Sans had got Muffet to make specially for him (at triple the price because they were the next season's special), Sans braces himself and teleports into your kitchen. 

Strange, the lights were off. 

Were you just sleeping in again? You really had no discipline, but he didn't mind. It played in so well with your impulsive and free flowing personality.

Sans ends up waiting the entire day for you, but you never show up. Not even when the sun goes down. He'd texted and called a few times, but you didn't pick up. 

He teleports to the outside of your shop to see if you'd left some kind of sign taped to the door, but he doesn't see anything. 

Damn, where were you? 

He was starting to get worried, but he didn't know where you lived. What could he do? 

Maybe you were out having a good time and were just ignoring his calls and texts on purpose because you were still mad. 

He moves to stuff the doughnuts in your fridge. Maybe you could have them tomorrow when you were back. 

As he's about to blip out of there, his phone vibrates, causing him to jump with shock, that is almost immediately replaced by relief when he sees your name appear on his screen. 

"Debs?" 

"Where's the fire, Skelly? Finally decided you can’t live without me?" 

"Yeah, right. I was in the area so I came to your shop to say hi, but you weren't there." He's not going to tell you that was true.

"Oh uh, yeah. I'm not gonna be at the shop for a while." 

"Pity. I even got a box of Muffet's doughnuts…" 

Sans pauses as he lets the bait dangle. 

"Oh my god." You didn't want him to see you in this state, but damn it all. Monster doughnuts. They would taste so good…. No… no. You couldn't let yourself be tempted. You could just get someone to grab them or get them yourself when you were better. 

"They sound good but I'm kinda busy now…" 

"They're limited edition. They won't be released till next season." 

UGH WHY DID HE KNOW YOU SO WELL. 

"GOD. SANS. How did you??" 

"I could pop in real quick. You sure you don't want em? They're better fresh." 

"YES. Damn you, I want them so bad. Okay, fine. I'm in Alexandra hospital." 

"Hospital? What are doing there?" Sans suddenly fills with panic. 

"Chill out. I'll tell you more when you get here. They better be damn good doughnuts!" You say as you give him special directions to your ward. It was set apart from the common wards, used specially for VIP guests, syndicates and anyone they wanted to keep out of the public eye. 

-

"Fuck." He says when he makes it to your personal ward and sees you lying on the bed resembling a mummy. 

He makes his way there easily although he'd never been here before. Monsters didn't need hospitals in general. They either healed by magic and food or dusted straight away. 

He shakes his head, annoyed at the chemical smell.

"You look like shit." He eyelights flicker out and you can sense a whole myriad of emotions from him. 

"Where are my doughnuts!" You frown as you struggle to sit up.

"Debs the doctor said-" Mark calls out from the side as he moves to walk over, but you stop him with a narrowed gaze. 

Sans turns to look at Mark, sensing somehow that he was involved in this, and notices that Mark has multiple bandages on and a black eye. 

"Why do you look less beat up than she does?" He growls accusatorily as he walks over to Mark and grabs him by the collar. If Sans were there, he would've protected you better. The fuck he was doing moping at home?! He could've been there with you if he wasn't so busy being a wimp in his room.

He was so mad that his magic was already racing along his fingertips, eager to take it out on anyone.

Mark bristles, but he grits his teeth silently in anger, shame and guilt pouring out of him in waves.

"Need a name, Mark. And I need it **now**." 

It's been a long time since Sans felt this angry. Somebody was going to be in for a **g o o d t i m e.**

"Doughnuts! Hello! Priorities!" You turn to Sans and cut him off, reaching out with your somewhat good hand. 

He glances over and thinks to deny you, but his eyelights eventually flicker back on as he gives in without a fight. He lowers Mark to the floor and walks over to you, holding the box open while using his magic to ease you into a sitting position.

"Mmmmmmmmm… I'm in heaven.” You sigh in between huge bites.

"You're such a reckless child." Sans mumbles under his breath. He glowers at your barely functional hands that are struggling with the yummy treat. "How'd you even pick up my phone call?" How'd you get injured with or without him? 

You have to use both hands to pick up the doughnut because they're both wrapped in a hard cast from your elbows, halfway down your fingers. It's a little hard to balance but you make it somehow.

Sigh, the plan was so going so well till Caleb held Mark hostage. 

You'd get that shitstick back for breaking your arms. But you grin when you recall how enraged he was that you didn't make a sound. 

"Willpower." You beam as you ask for another one. 

"Be right back." Sans disappears with the doughnuts as you look at the place he disappeared with awe, wonder and a buttload of disappointment at your missing doughnuts. 

Damn, teleportation was so ridiculously cool no matter how many times you saw it. 

-

By the time Sans returns, it’s past visiting hours and the nurses have ushered Mark back home. Although VIP rooms were kind of immune to the rules, he still had shit to settle with the Aces, anyway. He’d left after you assured him that you were fine.

"That's cheating." You say with a giggle when he teleports into the room, past all the nurses.

"Y'know, the middle finger hedge was reeeeeal classy." He rolls his eyelights. 

"You asshole, you made me so mad!" You toss your pillow at him when you recall how he had totally ignored you. 

"What? So you don't want me around anymore? Too bad then, guess I gotta leave." He walks backwards, away from your bed. "With the doughnuts..." He says pointedly, opening the lid slightly to let you take a peek. 

That little shit. He could just teleport out here in a second if he really wanted to leave. You want to stay mad, but those doughnuts… and the fact that he got Muffet to make you the seasons special as an apology… 

“Who said anything like that?” You immediately throw on a sickly sweet smile as you tilt your head fawningly, “Come on, get over here, bestie. I missed you.” 

“Geez, m’not sure about that. I’m sure I heard you call me an asshole.” Sans wiggles his brow bones without missing a beat.

“Pfft. What? That was an affectionate term. Isn’t that how things are between us?” You open your eyes wide and flutter your eyelids innocently.

“Not sure you have affection for anything but the doughnuts.” Sans frowns exaggeratedly with a shake of his head as well as he gives a dramatic sigh. Fuck, how did you look so cute even covered in bandages.

“Eh. Doughnuts? What? All my affection is for you, you silly skelly.” 

“For me eh?” He chuckles, “Guess you don’t need these doughnuts anymore, then.” He takes one in his hand and pretends to bring it to his mouth when you toss your pillow at him again. Your aim is good for a girl who has two plaster stumps to use as arms. Not that it didn't hurt like hell.

“Don’t touch my doughnut you lil’ shit.” You narrow your eyes at him in warning.

He surprises himself with a genuine laugh as he walks back over with the box and holds one out in front of your mouth. “Ouch, I thought your affection was for me.” He teases.

You quickly take a huge bite out of it in case he plans on teasing you and snatches the doughnut away. If he did that, you’d chomp on his arm. You swear it. 

As the doughnut settles into your tummy and fades away into magic like all monster food does, you feel a strong, tingly wave of something flow through your body, numbing the pain you feel in your arms, ribs and nose.

“Damn bro, what did you do?” You breathe out in wonder. They didn’t have that effect just now. 

“Got my bro to fill the doughnuts with healing magic.” He can’t help but smile at your look of unconcealed awe. Fuck, you were making him soft. His soul was literally tingling from the mere look on your face.

“Papyrus? Did he know they were for me?” You blink in shock. Was Papyrus actually a nice guy?

“Yeah. He’s pretty cool. He’s just been through a lot, y’know.” 

“Mmm.” You say noncommittally. You gesture with your stump of a hand to your bedside for him to take a seat as you lean on him. 

“Thanks, Sans.” 

He looks genuinely confused as he stares a hole into the wall, “What for?” He mumbles, feeding you another doughnut, “Pap’s the one who did the magic.”

You giggle at his blush that lights up your room, “Just... thanks.” 

His waves of concern and joy were just so pure and juxtaposed to how he liked to carry himself that you found it so absolutely adorable. 

You really missed having this grumpy and awkward guy around. He was such a strong and powerful monster, and you honestly felt so comfortable in his presence. He made you feel like… you weren’t an anomaly. You weren't the only one with magic. 

You’re not sure if it’s because his jacket was so damned fluffy or because of your medication, but you fall asleep before you even know it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I recently read an underfell novel that I REALLY liked and remembered that my underfell Sans needed some love too
> 
> Want me to post more? Then leave me some comments! They really do wonders for my desire to write on :)


	7. The night is still young

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Violence, blood and... emotions??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a double release today! :)

Sans freezes up when you fall asleep on his shoulder and his face lights up in a brilliant blush. 

An hour in, and his shoulder feels like it's about to fall off because he hasn't moved an inch since. He's seriously wondering what to do next, when you suddenly mumble something and your head rolls off his shoulder. 

Catching you gently with his magic, he lowers your frame down to your pillow and covers you with your blanket. 

Shuffling off your bed with unpracticed gentleness, he hops off and clicks the bed arm back in place as he looks over his shoulder once to make sure that you're all okay.

Now. To business. 

It doesn't take him long to find your old base and get Caleb's name and details from Mark, since you'd once told him the general area of where it used to be. He'd found out a lot about you during that game of I Have Never… before you started trashing the place, of course.

Obviously, he didn't mind at all that you used to be part of a gang. That just made so much sense, explaining why you were such a reckless hothead that didn't flinch a bit when you first met him. 

He wasn't stupid enough to attribute that to how crazy you were, though. He knows that's something natural to you. Stars above, he was living for it. 

...And someone would die for almost taking that away from him. 

He walks to the edge of the Caleb's base. Mark and this other guy… Jacob? had told him the gist of what happened. Mark was hesitant at first, but Sans managed to persuade him in the end. It wasn't that hard. He just grabbed a few people with his magic and tossed them millimetres away from sharp magic bones he summoned from the wall. 

Sans doesn't care about the rivalries between your gang and the Black Spades, or that whoever had dragged you back in for whatever reason, but if anyone hurt you, or caused you hurt indirectly, he'd make them pay. 

He'd have put some bones through Mark and any of the others if he wasn't so sure that it would be the final nail in the coffin of your friendship with him for sure. 

  
  


Three metres from Caleb's base, Sans spots some people guarding the base and his left eye flares to life. 

Bones pierce through the hearts of all but one of them as he says with his usual grin, "Get your boss." 

As the guy dashes inside, Sans summons his gaster blasters and levels half the place as the pathetic underlings dash the fuck out of his way. Sans isn't out to wipe the whole gang out, but if they were going to present their bodies on a silver platter, he'd be a fool to let them off. Kill or be killed.

He'd never been this enraged. Not when Frisk had dusted everyone he had ever known, not when he watched Papyrus… the old Papyrus die. Not when he was killed over and over. Nothing. 

"Who are you? What do you want?" A loud voice growls from Sans' left. 

With a swing of his hand, the speaker crashes face first on the floor.

"I ask the questions here... buddy." 

Sans walks over slowly as the guy tenderly wipes away the blood leaking out of his broken nose. 

"Are you Caleb?" He summons a bone out from the ground, spearing through his right thigh. 

As the man lets out an agonized roar of pain, Sans shakes his head as he shrugs. "Answer quickly. I ain't the most patient, y'know." 

Sans summons a long bone and grabs it in his hand. "Do I have to ask again?"

"I- I am." Caleb forces out through gritted teeth as he continues to grab his pierced thigh. 

"Good boy." Sans lets the bone pierced through Caleb's thigh disappear and snorts as he crumples to the ground. 

"Don't die on me yet, buddy." His eyelights flicker out as he squats beside Caleb and grabs a fistful of hair.

Sans swings his bone bat as with his usual grin, enjoying the man's muffled cry. "The night is still young." 

"W-wait. T-tell me who sent you. I can pay you… more." Caleb grabs at his head to ease the pressure as he pleads.

"Fucking humans. You think everything is about money." Sans growls as he throws Caleb towards the ground.

"Not money? Revenge then?" Caleb wipes the cold sweat off his brow as things finally click into place. "You're the skeleton that's been hanging around Debs. You're-" 

Sans sends another bone through Caleb's arm. "You don't have the right to say her name." 

After Caleb lets out another cry, he tries pleading again. "If- if you kill me, Debs will get in trouble. Y- You don't know, do you?" Caleb is struggling not to black out from the pain. You are the only card he can play now. If he could only get the Skeleton to let him go, he would be able to fight another day. 

Sans hesitates, unsure if killing Caleb would really be a problem for you. 

He puts in a call. 

"Can I kill him?" 

"... Does he know why you're there?" Mark's voice comes in from the other end.

"Yeah." Sans grunts. 

"Do it." 

Sans cuts the call, and Caleb's final lifeline. 

“Ya ready for a good time?” 

-

"Grillbz, I need a favour." Sans stands covered in blood as he makes another call. 

"The fuck I gotta-" 

"Please buddy, I don't got much time. The sun’s rising." 

"Fine. But you better pay your fuckin' tab. " 

-

You’re woken up by the idle chatter of the nurses.

“Did you hear? The base of some huge syndicate burned down in the middle of the night.”

“Whoa, really? Which?” 

“I’m not sure, but they say it was one of the biggest ones. Their leader is nowhere to be found either.”

That jolts you awake. A base burnt down?? Was it the Aces? Was Mark okay? 

“Some say that the house burned purple for a moment.”

“Purple? That’s not possible.”

“Unless it was magic.”

“You’re saying monsters did it?”

“Why not? There are monster mafia too.”

“Or maybe they’re just finding out another reason to push the blame on monsters again. I don’t buy it. Got any evidence?”

At this moment, your phone rings and your heave a sigh of relief when you see Mark’s name on the ID. 

“Hey doll, did ya hear?”

“About the base? I heard some nurses were talking about it. Was it yours?”

“Nope. It was the Black Spades’. But I’m going to be busy for a while.”

Oh yeah, the Aces and Black Spades were constant rivals for the top, and with the Black Spades out of the picture, Mark was going to be pretty busy. Turf wars were going to be a huge problem, for starters.

“Sure, bro. Ashley will be back soon anyway.” 

Ashley had to fly off for an important meeting just 2 days before Jacob had come to you.

One of the members, Kate, had gotten kidnapped by the Black Spades when a run had failed, and you normally wouldn’t have helped. You’d long since left the Aces and didn’t want to have anything to do with the gang life, but when Jacob told you that Kate was pregnant with his kid, you couldn’t help but step in.

You weren’t a combat mage, but you’d managed yourself damn well and had gotten all the way to Kate before Caleb appeared with Mark in his hands. 

Mark was supposed to be distracting Caleb somewhere else while you, Jacob, and some other members went to find and rescue Kate, but Caleb had found out somehow halfway through their discussion. 

You were so flustered when you first saw them, that you forgot to defend yourself as he got one of his men to break your arm. When you came back to your senses, you tried to block out the pain as you sent your magic through the floor and changed Caleb's gun into a pool noodle but this gave them the opportunity to fracture your other arm. 

Your group eventually managed to escape, but you'd gotten the worst of it. Eh, whatever. You had a high pain tolerance because of your ridiculously high HP. And with Sans' magic doughnuts and Kiwi by your side, you'd heal in no time! 

Oh, but it was a problem that the Black Spades were gone… meh. Not **your** problem. And you were determined to keep it that way.

“Hey, any idea what happened? What happened to Caleb and everyone else?” 

“Yeah... Caleb’s dead.”

“How do you know?” 

“I’ll let him tell you himself.” 

“Him?”

“Yeah.” 

No way. Was it… Sans?

"Hey doll, I gotta run. Catch ya later? And don't worry about the hospital fees." 

"Thanks but, you know I don't, right?"

"It was my fault you're in there anyway. Come on, I don't have time."

You remind him pointedly, "You need the money to support the gang. Especially now."

"... Fine. But take care of yourself."

"Like I always do." 

You cut the line. 

Whipping out your phone, you put in a text.

-

**Debs**

Hey Sans, you got something you needa tell me?

-

Sans teleports into your ward a second later and there isn’t a spot of blood on his clothes, but you could smell it a mile away.

  
  


That was all the answer you needed.

Calling the nurse, you tell her that you don't want to be disturbed for the next two hours and the room immediately empties, save for you and Sans.

"So." You want to cross your arms but have to settle for leaning grumpily on your headboard instead. 

"What?" Sans grumbles from beside you.

You toss a pillow at him again but he catches it with his magic midway through the air. 

"Stop playing dumb, Sans. I know you're the one who burnt down their base." 

"Uh, joke's on you, kid. Because I am dumb. Don't gotta pretend. And no," he continues, "I am technically not the one who burnt down their base." 

"Technically?" You raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah, I got a friend to do it." 

You roll your eyes but you can't help but laugh. 

"Okay then, what about Caleb?" 

"Who's Caleb?" 

You roll your eyes as you look around for your pillow, only to find that it's still floating in midair. He brings it closer to you. 

"Looking for this?" 

"Oh yes, I am." You grab onto it as he releases his magic, and immediately toss it at him. He ducks and catches it with his magic again.

"Hey! Stop tossing things you damn kid!" 

"Well then, stop making me angry!" 

"Why'd that make you angry?" 

"I-" you don't actually know, but you're angry anyway! 

Yeah, you were a LITTLE BIT touched that he'd gotten rid of Caleb and also any additional problems, but he'd also done so without asking you. And you weren't his problem! You hated owing anyone. 

"... You should've brought me with you!" 

"Oh yeah? And what would you do? Yell him to death?" He looks pointedly at your arms. 

"I could kick him to death!" You lift up your right leg pointedly as he rolls his eyelights. 

"Too much trouble to take care of you." He makes up an excuse.

"Liar! You're a super OP monster who literally waltzed into the base of one of the biggest syndicates in our country, burned it down **and** you killed their leader without a damn bit of evidence pointing towards the fact that you did it! You could've taken care of me no sweat."

Your cheeks are red from your rant as you calm down, realising unashamedly that you were contradicting yourself. 

And did you really trust Sans that much? With your life?

"I didn't want to risk you getting injured anymore, happy?" 

"Why? Why do you care!" 

You knew that he liked you, but since he was so adamant on denying it, you figured this would shut him up and let you win. Whenever he wanted to do things for you, you'd tease him this way, and he would usually change the subject or give up on the battle and let you do whatever you wanted.

"Because I fucking like you, okay!" He growls, face lit up in a precious crimson red. 

Oh shit, you pushed him too far. 

"Wow, that's so passionate. I'm rooting for you!" 

Your heads whip around to see your best friend, Ashley, standing by the door. 

You'd left orders not to be disturbed, but Ashley wasn't on the block list.

Sans blushes an impossibly darker shade of red as he immediately teleports out of the room. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. I like you, but

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love isn't easy, my friends.

"You scared him away." Your lips flatten into a thin line as you shake your head with mock disapproval. 

She walks over and slaps you gently on the head, "I was gone for two days, Debs."

"Not my faaaaault." You whine, having already filled her in on the details when she called before. "I didn't even make a sound when he broke my arm! I'm hardcore!" 

"If you were hardcore, you shouldn't have gotten caught or injured in the first place." She glowers at you.

"What now? You can't do anything against Caleb, but I'm worried he's going to send people in the shadows to get rid of you. It's old news that you have a bad relationship with your family, but your uncle'd still take it as a personal slight. I heard there's been a bit of a power struggle recently." 

"Oh you don't have to worry about that-"

"Are you kidding me? Are you **asking** to die? Why? Why do you always find ways to kill yourself when I'm not here! Is this your rebellious way of telling me that you don't want me to go?" 

You close your eyes and let her finish her rant because she's a literal machine gun when she's mad.

"Caleb's dead." You say when she stops speaking.

"What? You killed him? Oh my God. Your uncle would kill you. What do you mean you don't need to worry? We should be even more worried now that-" 

"It wasn't me!" You wave your stumps for hands and cut her. "Sans did it." 

"That skeleton guy who was proudly declaring his love for you in your room earlier?" Her eyes shine with incredulity as a smile plays along her lips. 

"Yeah." You laugh sheepishly as you fill her in with whatever information you know.

"Wow, so it's not that you didn't like Mark because he was a bad boy, but he just wasn't bad enough for you." She snickers.

"I do not like Sans!" You huff, pouting. 

"Babe. Your eyes literally sparkle with joy when you complain about Sans. And you never stop talking about him back home." 

"I'm just amazed that he's such an OP hardcore monster! With magic! So much magic!" 

She sighs as she plops into bed beside you. 

"How do you feel when you're with him?" 

You think hard before you reply, "It's fun… He makes me laugh a lot and I feel safe with him around. But we always fight... Nah I don't think I like him." 

"Yeah but, do you want him around all the time?" 

"Yeah, like how I want you around all the time!" 

Ashley groans, she's not getting anywhere.

"Okay what if Sans just stopped hanging out with you and stopped replying you and then-" She shushes you when you try to interrupt her to remind her that already happened before, "You find out it's because he's been texting and spending time with another girl." 

A wave of jealousy rises from the pit of your stomach before you realise it. And then you do.

Realise that.

You like Sans too. 

You open your eyes wide as you look at Ashley. 

"Finally." She pats your shoulder. "You're such a dweeb when it comes to your own feelings. Oh." She turns around, "I haven't approved of him yet, by the way. Although he does have extra points for solving your Caleb problem." 

A warm blush makes its way to your cheeks as you try to bury your head in your pillow.

She laughs and finally releases you from your suffering.

"How long will your arms take to heal?" 

"They were supposed to take a few months, but Sans brought me some healing doughnuts yesterday and the pain is almost all gone." You shake your hands to illustrate your point. 

"Hmm." She says contemplatively, but you don't miss the teasing glint in her eyes. 

The rest of the day is filled with various scans and tests as the doctors unwillingly discharge you after taking off your casts. They want to observe how monster magic works on the human body. Because of the tension between monsters and humans, healing magic was usually kept strictly for monster-use only. Humans who got to experience healing magic were extremely rare. 

However, there was no way in hell that Ashley was going to let you become their guinea pig. 

By the end of the day, you're lying back at home in your comfortable bed.

"Sans, huh." You whisper to kiwi, petting her gently along her nose. 

Pulling out your phone, you don't see a single text or call from him. You realise that you accidentally ignored him since his confession, oops. 

-

**Debs**

Knock knock

-

You keep trying when there's no reply.

-

**Debs**

Knock knock

**Debs**

Knock knock

**Debs**

Knock Knock

-

Sigh, after a long while passes, you toss your phone to the side. Why wasn’t the skeleton replying you! 

Hearing the jangle of keys, you pop out of your room and lean over the banister.

“Where’re you going, Ash!” 

“Meeting a friend for drinks! Wanna come?” She calls back to you from the first floor.

“Oh yes, please!” You’re ravenous and your stomach has been growling for the past half hour.

“Okay, but you’re not allowed to get drunk.” She points at you as you make your way down the staircase. “If you do and get into trouble, I’m never taking you out with me again.”

“What!” You clutch your hand to your chest with a pained expression, “I would never!”

Rolling her eyes, she shakes her car keys. ‘And I’m driving.”

You bite your lower lip and agree obediently. You couldn't fight **every** battle.

-

Wandering into the bar, you note with wonder that monsters fill every corner.

You wander past a drunk little bunny and make your way to the bar counter beside Ashley, whispering to Kiwi about how she shouldn’t grow up to be like that. 

“Griiillbzzz. I need ‘nother.” 

You turn over to find the source of the voice and hey, it’s your new favourite skeleton.

You watch as a purple flame walks over to glower at him. 

“I didn’t get you to pay your tab just so you could make a worse one.” He grumbles as he pours some monster alcohol into a mustard bottle, shaking it. 

“Hey Ash.” You tap on her shoulder and point to the hammered skeleton.

She gives you a knowing smile as she laughs and motions for you to go ahead as she sits by the bar, continuing to chat with her friend.

“Whatsup, Skelly.” You say, sliding into the seat beside him.

“Fuck.” His eyelights widen with shock as he summons his magic to get his ass out of there. Oh no, he was not running away from you again this time. 

You call a cab and head for Sans’ house. It’s Papyrus who opens the door.

“Human!” 

“Hey Papyrus! Thanks for your healing magic!” You call as you walk past him.

“You are very welcome! Are you not here to pick a fight with me?”

This causes you to pause. “A fight?”

“Yes! You do look like you are ready to pick a fight with somebody! With how I hurt you the last time you entered this establishment, I believed that somebody was me.”

“But you healed me too! We’re even. I don’t have a _bone_ to pick with you.” You grin, making your way up the staircase.

“Nyeh-heh-heh! Sans has just returned to his room, human. Let us speak when I return.”

“Bye Papyrus!” 

You fling open the door to Sans’ room to find him sitting in his bed.

“The fuck you doin-”

“Stop running from me!” You cross your arms over your chest and huff at him.

“Leave me alone.” He grumbles, turning away from you. “Why do you keep chasing me.”

“Yeah, you should be the one chasing **me.** Honestly, how’s that any way to treat your love interest?” 

“I didn’t say I loved you. I said I liked you.” He mumbles to the wall.

“Oh, really?” You can sense his affection for you pouring out of him in waves and you laugh when you can feel him trying to stem it. “So it wasn’t a confession then? So I should go now since there’s no need to respond to it. Sigh, now I can’t tell you that I like you too.” You quickly leave his room and close the door behind you.

Before you can make your way down the stairs, he teleports back in front of you. 

“What did you say?”

“I don’t know, what did I say?” You blink in mock innocence at his blushing face. 

“Don’t mess with me, you said you liked me?” He forces out through gritted teeth.

“What do you care? I thought you said you didn’t confess to me.” You say lightly and try to duck to go past him when he suddenly surrounds you with a red glowing magic and lifts you off the floor to his eye level.

Amused at the tingle of magic you can feel on your skin, you let out a soft giggle in spite of the situation.

“Well?” You ask, looking him in the eyes.

“... I like you.” His eyelights look away from you as he lowers you to the floor and releases his magic.

“Like a friend?” You tease, tilting your head to the side.

“No, I..” He struggles to express himself and his face takes on a striking red as he lights up the entire corridor.

Giggling, you decide to take it easy on him. 

Stepping forwards, you tiptoe to wrap your arms around his neck as you give him a kiss on his cheek, “I really like you too.” 

Sans freezes when your body draws close to him.

“Fer real?”

“Yeah, for real.” 

As Sans’ mind clicks into place, you lift his hands and put it around your waist. 

“You’re supposed to hug a girl back when she hugs you.” You tease, arms pulling away from his neck to settle around his thick waist. How’s a skeleton become so thick anyway?

He buries his head in your shoulder and tightens his arms around you. 

“Fuck me. I thought I messed up so bad at the hospital.” 

“People don’t usually do that on first dates.” You giggle at your bad joke, “And yeah, you did. But Ashley saved you. Oh.”

You pull away from him and text Ashley to let her know where you are and to come pick you once she’s done.

Boyyyy she was gonna be sooooo mad. 

Pocketing your phone, you look back up at Sans. “So are we officially dating now?”

“... You’re serious aren’t you? People don’t take kindly to humans dating monsters.”

“Since when have I cared about what other people think? Come on Sans, do you want me as your girlfriend or not?”

When he stays silent, the grin fades off your face as you slowly pull away from him.

“...Are you kidding me?”

“It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s just- it’s more complicated than-”

“Forget it.” Embarrassed that you had moved so fast and just assumed that just because he liked you meant that he wanted to be in a relationship with you, your shame manifests itself as anger as you stomp down the stairs. 

He teleports back in front of you, “Kid, come on. Don’t be that way.”

“I’m not a kid.” You say as you throw the front door open, “And don’t follow me.”

Closing the door a little too hard behind you, hot wet tears fall down your cheeks as you trudge your way down the sidewalk. You don’t know which direction you’re headed in, and you don’t care. 

After a moment, a red car pulls up beside you. 

“It didn’t go well?” Ashley calls from the window.

“Hey, bestie. Let’s just go home. I’m tired.” You open the door to the passenger seat and climb in, cradling Kiwi to your chest.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I solemnly swear that I am not dragging this out on purpose.
> 
> Debs is just that way. She gets mad when she wants, angry when she wants, sad when she wants.  
> She's like a whirlwind that blows in and out of Sans' life.
> 
> But not everyone (thank the stars) lives life like she does.
> 
> Also, leave me a comment down below. I have nothing to offer you but another chapter if you do.


	9. The avatar

You wake up in the morning feeling like shit.

Groaning, you rub the bottom of your palms over your eyes as you brush your teeth in front of the mirror. 

You definitely look exactly like how you feel. Ugh.

Heading back to your room, you open your phone to check the time and see a bunch of messages from Sans. You don't want to read them because you're still embarrassed and sad, even if you aren't mad anymore. 

Growing up as you did, you’d learnt to be overly expressive in order to act like you didn’t care about a lot of things, but you were bad at handling rejection. You know that it wasn’t anything personal, and that your thoughts were rather illogical, but in his rejection of wanting to be your boyfriend, you felt like it was a rejection of who you were.

It made you want to completely forget that you liked him. 

After all, if you didn’t like him, it didn’t matter if he didn’t want to date you. As such, you decided to throw it right to the back of your mind.

After realising you had no orders to fulfill today, you decide not to head down to your cafe.

-

**Debs**

Not opening the cafe today

-

You send the text message to Sans to let him know there’s no need for him to go to the cafe today without reading anything he sent you. 

Turning the phone screen off, you let sleep claim you. 

  
  


You’re woken up by the ringing of your phone, and you answer the call groggily.

“Hey Debs.”  
“Sup’ Mark?” Your voice is laced with sleep.

“Remember that lunch date you owe me?”

“Not a date.” You pointedly remind him as you sit up with a yawn, “But yeah, why?”

“Can I cash in on that?”

"Duh, of course you can. When?”

“Like, right now.” 

You hear a car honking outside as your climb out of bed and to the window.

“Got twenty minutes?” You ask, opening the door for him.

“Yeah, go ahead.” He chuckles as he ruffles your bed hair, then walks inside and plops himself in front of the television.

After your shower, you towel your hair off as you put on a maroon tank top and ripped black skinny jeans.

As you’re about to head back downstairs, Ashley calls you into her room.

“You’re not using Mark as rebound, are you?” She warns.

“I”m not.” You say, “It’s not like I want to be attached to just anyone. I don’t have to date someone just because Sans doesn't want me.”

“Tch.” she clicks her tongue, “You didn’t even give the poor guy a chance to speak.” 

“Why? And let him tell me **exactly** why I’m not good enough for him?” You toss your towel into the basket, “No thank you. Let’s talk about this later, I’m going for lunch. You can come with if you want. It’s not a date, anyway.”

“I’ll pass, it’s a rare day off. I don't feel like spending it babysitting you, brat.” 

You stick your tongue out at her as you head down the stairs.

“What are you watching?” You ask as you lean on the sofa behind Mark.

“Just the news.” He says, turning the television off as he looks to you.

“Whoa, you smell good.” 

“Thanks.” You smile, “Where do you wanna go?”

“No preference, how about you?”

You think about it for a moment before you reply, “Oh, I know!”

You wanted to go back to Grillbys because you didn’t manage to eat anything there yesterday before you ended up in that drama with Sans. Ashley told you that their food was hella good, and you had sulked because you had given up delicious monster food just so you could go and get your heart broken.

-

“Ash said that the burgers and fries are good here!” You tell Mark, sitting in the booth across the table from him.

“Okay, then I’ll get that too.” He says without looking at the menu.

When he stands up to go to the counter, you push him back down to the seat.

“It’s my treat, remember?” You wink, “You can get the drinks.”

Chuckling helplessly, he sits back down as he raises his hands in surrender.

When you’re on the way to the counter to order, you see the lonely back of a skeleton hunched over the bar.

“A little early to be getting hammered, don’t you think?” You lean on the counter beside him.

“Kid! Hey, you didn’t reply to any of my texts.” 

“Yeah, about that. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that.” You look at him with a small smile as you give him a light punch on his shoulder. “Let’s just pretend that nothing happened, okay?” 

“I don’t-”

You cut him off before your nerves and emotions get the better of you and make you say something you regret. “I’ll catch up with you next time, Sans. The cafe should be open tomorrow!” 

Then, you bounce away to order the food before sliding back into the booth with Mark.

“So how are things going with the Aces?” You say in between bites of your burger. 

When you first sank your teeth into the literal manifestation of burger heaven, you had to take a moment to compose yourself. It was the most delicious burger you’d ever eaten in your entire existence.

“They’re okay. Things finally calmed down, so I took the opportunity to come visit you. I went to the hospital at first, but they told me that you’d discharged yesterday.”  
“Oh yeah, sorry I forgot to update you. Anyway, you look like you haven't slept at all." 

"Because I haven't. You sure I can't convince you to join us again?" 

"Bro." You roll your eyes with a grin and point to your arm, "Sometimes I miss the life, but I definitely don't miss the pain." 

He winces, " Sorry." 

"No no, I didn't mean to make you feel bad." You wave your hands, "I'm just saying. How’s Kate and Jacob anyway?”  
“The baby’s coming soon. It’s a girl, by the way.”

“Oh, sweet! Tell them to send me pictures.”

You spend the next hour chatting before you’re cut off by the ringing of Mark’s handphone and he heads outside to take the call.

When he comes back, he tells you that he has to go.

“Doll, I’m so sorry. There’s a big fight that’s going down in the public square and-”

“Don’t worry about it, Mark. I’ll get home on my own.”

“You sure?” He checks his watch, “I could drive-”

“Nah, really. I’ll catch you again soon.” 

He apologises again as you sit by yourself in the booth, wondering offhandedly if this counted as your second rejection in the span of two days. Sigh, such self pity.

As you nurse the remains of your strawberry milkshake, a figure slides into your vision.

“Moved on already? Didn’t know I was that easily replaceable.” You look up to see Sans sitting opposite you with a mustard bottle in hand.

“Ha ha.” You laugh drily, “You _mustard_ thought wrong.” 

“Ouch, you wound me, kid.” 

You hurriedly finish up the last of your milkshake as you hop out of the booth. 

“Catch up with you later, Skell. I gotta go.” 

You wanted to stay and chat with him so much that it hurt because it kept making you remember how he rejected you.

You wanted to show yourself that you could walk away from Sans anytime. Or maybe, if you were being honest with yourself, you were rejecting him so that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to reject you again.

He grabs on to your arm as he pleads, “Come on, Debs.”

You turn to look him in the eye, “What?”

“I just wanna talk.” 

“Okay then, talk.” You give a smile that doesn’t reach your eyes as you sit back down into the booth with your hands shoved into your pockets.

He stiffens under your distant attitude, but he tries, “I don’t want you to think that I don’t like ya. I do, it’s just-”

“Forget about it, Sans. I don’t need an explanation from you.” You let your shoulders relax as you sigh. “It was my fault for being so pushy and assuming things. You don’t wanna date me, and that’s okay. If that’s all you want to talk about, then don’t worry about it.” 

You stand up, planning to leave the bar when a drunk guy walks past you and gropes your ass.

Sans growls from his seat as his left eye flares with magic, but you move first as you grab the guy’s hand and twist it upwards as he yells in pain. You’re glad for someone you can take your anger out on.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” You growl as you punch him in the face and walk out of the bar. Grillby would settle the rest. Or whatever. You don’t care.

Sans chases after you, “Let me send you back.”

You smile at him as you say, “Thank you very much for the offer, but as you saw, I can take care of myself.” You wave down a cab as you turn to him, “I’m not your problem, Sans.”

As the cab pulls away, you look in the side mirror to see your favourite skeleton disappear back into the bar. 

-

"Hey, I heard that Muffet's released their new series today." 

"Oh, seriously? I should get them once we're done!"

"I could teleport ya there." He offers.

"Oh that's fine. I need the walk." You say lightly.

"Okay, I could go with you still, if ya want. I could help carry the boxes." 

"Since when were you so helpful?" You laugh, "Don't worry about it. You probably have better things to do. It's a looooong walk, you know." 

Sans gets up and shuffles out of the booth, walking over to you. He grabs the mop from your hand. 

"Okay, kid. We need to talk." 

"About what?" You let him take the mop as you step away from him and pick up the cleaning rag to clean the tables instead.

"Yer' been avoiding me the whole week."

"No I haven't." You put in extra work into cleaning the table.

"Ya even went on your last grocery run without me." 

Sighing, you toss the rag to the table.

"Okay, look. I thought that was what you wanted, Sans." You look at him.

"What? When did I?" 

"You don't want to date me, but I have feelings for you. That means I have to take a step back." 

"What? I wanted things to stay the same. I didn't want ya to distance yourself." 

"Can't." You say. "You have to choose. You either choose me or you don't." 

"Why does everything have to be all or nothing with you?" Sans eyelights flicker out with frustration. 

"Whatever, Sans. Like I said before. I'm not your problem." 

You toss your shop keys over to him as you decide to head out before you say something stupid. "I'm going over to Muffet's. Lock up when you're done." 

He teleports in front of you and growls, "Stop running away whenever I try to talk to you about this."

"I'm not the one running away, Sans. You are." You cross your arms over your chest and glare at him, "You know what? It sounds like things are going over really great with Papyrus back home. I don't think you need to come here anymore." 

"Yer kickin me out?" His browbones furrow as he looks at you. You try to ignore his crushing waves of sadness.

"I'm not kicking you out." You don't meet his eyes as you say quietly, "I'm just sayin'.

Yeah, saying things you know you absolutely don't mean. 

"Fine." He says, tossing the keys on the table as he blips out of the shop. "Lock it up yerself." 

-

You stand alone as you look at your shop. 

Was it always this empty?

You and Sans haven't spoken for weeks. 

You weren't someone who held a grudge, but you had a hell lot of pride. And that damned pride was keeping you from apologising. 

You know you hurt his feelings, but he'd hurt yours too. You didn't have that big of a heart. You didn’t care about a lot of things, but this was definitely one of them. 

Ashley just sighed when you told her, knowing that you weren’t in the mood to listen to good advice. You know what she’d say anyway and you let out a long sigh as you lean on your counter. 

The bell of your shop door rings as you look up to see a young kid in a black and red striped sweater, holding on to a flower in a pot. 

The kid slides you a note. 

"What is this?" You read it but you don’t understand what it means. When you look up to ask, you notice that this kid has red tinted eyes. Cool. 

Eh, why do you remember thinking that?

"An intervention." They say, "Do you want to see where Sans used to live?" 

"Sans? You know Sans?" You narrow your eyes at the kid, sifting through memories. "Are you Frisk?"

Their gaze wavers, but they nod before asking again, "Do you want to come with me?" 

You stare at them for a long moment, "We've had this conversation before, haven't we?' 

They look shocked as they eventually nod tentatively. 

"Yeah, we have." 

"What did I answer the last time?"

"... You said no." 

"Is that why we're having this conversation again?"

"... Yes. And no." 

"Well then, let's go." 

"What? Really?" They're surprised that you decided to agree despite knowing what they did.

"Yeah. Wouldn't want you to loop me forever." You wink as you move to tell your customers that you're closing early for the day. "And I hate doing the same thing twice." 

-

"Geez kid, you could've brought me a jacket." You rub your hands together as you hop on the spot to try and warm up. "But don't rewind time for that. I'd be bored if I had to walk the whole damn way here again." 

You walked past the ruins, puzzles and what was supposed to be Sans' old sentry station before you finally reached what Frisk introduced to you as Snowdin.

"Papyrus used to be the leader of the underground." Frisk tells you. "He wasn't very nice."

"Ha." You bark out a laugh as your hand subconsciously goes to your throat, "I figured." 

"They hated Sans by association, too." 

"What do you mean?"

"The monsters. They really hated Sans because he was Papyrus' brother. When I came to the underground, I was his only friend."

Damn. Your family treated you like shit, but at least you had Ashley growing up. If all Sans had was himself, it meant that apart from this nine year old child, you were the only one he had. 

Man, you were a real piece of shit. 

Frisk cradles the flowerpot to their chest the same way you hug Kiwi to yours. Damn, you wish you had Kiwi's fur coat. Wait a minute. Summoning your magic, you change the material of your shirt into a thick cotton turtleneck and sigh at the warmth.

"Whoa, you're a mage too." They cry out in amazement.

"Yeah!”

“What else can you do?” 

“Do you watch anime? I’m like the Elric brothers! I can transmute things!” 

They shake their head.

“Uhm, that means that… I can change the shape and form of stuff. Watch!”

You take the snow from the ground and make the motions to create a kind of shield and it pops up from the ground. But you change its property to become something harder, like rock.

“Oh you’re like an earth slash water bender!” They say.

“I’d say I’m more like the avatar, then. Master of earth, water, wind, fire!” 

You say, as you mimic the movements, accidentally tripping on a loose pebble and landing hard on the ground when you do the flip in the air.

“Ugh, but everything changed when the fire nation attacked.” You say with a laugh as you stand back up.

“Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he **vanished**.” Frisk chimes in from beside you.

“Hey! Where’d you go?”

“Over here!” They say, waving to you as they disappear again into a small house.

You follow them in, and appear on the other side of the snow town when you’ve barely taken a few steps.

“Whoa. That’s cool. It was like a teleportation machine.” 

“Sans made it.” They say. “That’s my guess, anyway.”

“Sans?” 

“Yeah. He’s really smart.” 

You nod at that. He had a self depreciating kind of humor, and he always put himself down or tried to appear like he wasn’t, but the way he carried himself betrayed his real intelligence. 

“Hey.” They say, when they lead you inside a house nearby, “Be nice to Sans, won’t you?”

You bite down on your lower lip, feeling rather guilty. 

“Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” You say when they lead you upstairs, and to a room on the right.

“Of course. But you have to take your shoes off first.” They reply.

“Oh okay.” You obediently take your shoes off and place them outside the door as Frisk opens it and shoves you in, just as a skeleton blips in beside you.

“The fuck-”

“Whoa.” 

The both of you simultaneously cry out in surprise.

“What are ya doing here?” He growls. 

“Frisk brought me here.” You say with a shrug, but the little devil is nowhere to be found. 

His eyelights flicker to the wound on your elbow, “Yer injured again.”

Injured?

You tilt your arm and realise that you were bleeding from the fall earlier. 

“Oh. Ha ha, so that happened.” You say with a shrug. 

OH MY GOD. IT WAS SO AWKWARD.

“I should probably go…” You say, but when you turn to leave, you accidentally slip on one of the socks lying in his room and fall down.

You close your eyes, ready to hit the ground, but you never do. Instead, you feel the familiar tingle of magic on your skin and you’re floating in the air again.

“Yer a fuckin’ klutz.” He snorts as he rolls his eyelights.

“Sorry, we’re not all super OP monsters.” You cross your arms and legs in the air, turning away from him.

“What happened to yer… shoes?” He suddenly gulps and turns away from you.

“Frisk asked me to take em’ off. I don’t know why though, this place is a fuckin… mess… Are you okay?” 

You notice that he’s sweating red, but since monsters don’t bleed, you know it’s not blood.

“... Yeah. Where’re yer shoes?”

You don’t know why that’s so important to him, but you point outside his door.

You go to look for your shoes when Sans lowers you to the ground, but they’re gone.

You pop your head back in, “I think the kid took em. What’s the big deal?” 

“Socks are… skeleton underwear.”

“What?” You look down at your Totoro ankle socks incredulously, “You’re kidding. These are scandalous to you?” 

He turns away wordlessly and takes out his phone.

“Damned kid won't pick up their phone!” He glowers at the screen as he swipes at it.

“They say ya have a note for me?”  
A note?

“I don't know what it means, _tibia_ honest.” You say, as you hand him the note in your pocket.

**_Get dunked on_ **

He groans and crushes the note, tossing it to the far corner of the room where a little trash tornado picks it up and twirls it in the air.

He looks at you, eyelights flickering to your feet every now and then, “Do you know how to get back?”

“Not really." You had a shit sense of direction. "Why don’t you just teleport me back?” 

“I thought you said ya weren’t my problem anymore?”

“True.” You say, heading down the staircase.

He teleports in front of you, “Hey, relax, kid. I was kidding. Where do you wanna go?”

You take a deep breath, “Actually, can we talk?”

He’s silent for a long minute before he says, “Only if you take yer socks off first.” 

When you toss him an incredulous look, he defends himself, “They’re very distracting, okay!”

Snorting softly, you summon your magic and turn your socks into a pair of thin black flip flops.

-

You're seated on the floor of the underground cave, and look up at some crystal stones stuck to the ceiling. 

"Used ta come here whenever I was stressed out. Which was a lot." He chuckles lowly as he admits to you. 

"I can see why you would. It's a beautiful place." You say, finding a spot on the ground to sit down as Sans takes his place beside you.

"Sorry I've been a shitty friend." You say, "I said that I wanted to pretend nothing happened, but then I wouldn't let it." You say, staring at the ground. 

He snorts, "I'll say. You wouldn't let me explain, neither."

You stick your tongue out sheepishly as you hug your knees to your chest. 

"Will you come back to the cafe?"

"What for? The place is always empty. You don't need my help." He grunts.

"Yeah, but I miss you." 

Taken aback at your candour, Sans lights up a brilliant red. 

"...Only if you let me speak without interrupting for the next 2 minutes." 

Your fingers mimic pulling a zip on your lips as you nod. 

"Most of my life's been pretty shit. T'was underground and up top."

You nod, not surprised. 

"T'wasnt till I met ya that I thought that hey, maybe life wasn't so bad afterall. Yeah, we fought a lot, but it was fun. You helped me out a bunch, and gave me a place to go. My relationship with Paps is also a lot better cos' of you, y'know. I was a lot happier ever since we met. Life was good as it was. Until I fucked it up by confessing."

You want to disagree, but he immediately says, "I still have one minute." 

You grit your teeth and set the timer on your handphone snarkily before turning back to him, earning you a snort. 

"I like ya, kid. More than a friend and probably a lot more than I should. But that's it. I'm a fuck up and I don't want to fuck yer life up by being in it. I'm happy that ya like me too, but you can find someone better. You should move on." 

He doesn't continue speaking, and you're silent until the alarm rings on your phone.

"You're not a fuck up." You say, eyes staring directly into his. "Maybe you've done some fucked up shit. But you aren't a fuck up." 

He merely grunts in reply as the both of you sit in a long silence. 

"Okay." You finally nod as he turns to you. 

"Okay, what?" He asks.

"I'll get over you. If that's what you want." You smile, "I'll try." 

He smiles as he thanks you, accepting the hollow feeling in his soul. 

After you've stayed there a little longer, Sans teleports the both of you back to your shop. 

"Should I walk you home?" 

"I rode here today." You grin, "Wanna ride on my bike?" 

"Sounds cool." 

"Fuck. Your house is huge." Sans' eyelights widen when he hops off your motorbike.

"Oh please, as if monsters aren't super rich too." You laugh, placing your helmet on your bike. See ya tomorrow, Sans." You smile and wave.

"Lookin' forward, kid." 

Even after he teleports away, you remain in the same spot, staring at where he left. You told him that you'd get over him, but honestly, you didn't know if you could. 

When you enter the house, you find Ashley sitting on the sofa. 

"I made up with Sans." You say, flopping in beside her.

"What? Really?" She turns to you in surprise.

You fill her in on what happened today before she pulls you into a hug.

"Aww, why're you crying?" 

"Mourning the loss of our potential relationship." 

"You're really giving up?" She looks at you quizzically, "That's surprising. You didn't even try. That's not like you." 

"I know…" 

You sigh into her arms as you pull away.

"But he **really** wanted me to move on. And he was so scared. I could feel the waves of it crushing my own soul. If I continued to force him then… I WOULD HAVE NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, DAMNIT." You flop backwards onto the sofa in frustration. 

"Awww our little baby is growing up." She pats your legs gently. "Who knows? Maybe he'll chase **you**." 

"Ha ha. Don't get my hopes up, bestie." 

"But who was Frisk and how could they rewind time? I didn't realise a thing."

"I have no idea."

"But you could tell?"

"Yeah, it was deja vu at first, but then I could guess what they were gonna say next. It was trippy as hell." You shrug, "Well, I can just ask Sans the next time we meet. I'm going to bed. Night, Ash."

"Night." 

-

A few weeks pass, and you and Sans start off a little bit awkward at first, but eventually, things get easier.

There's a little bit of weird sexual tension every now and then, but you know and resolve in your heart not to read anything into it. 

And today, you're going on a holiday! With all your friends. Sans, Papyrus, Mark, and Ash, who brought Grillby along because who knew they were dating now.

Apparently, Sans didn't know either because he got a shock when he reached the airport.

"The fuck? Grillbz? What are ya doing here?"

"I brought him, why?" Ashley crosses her arms and looks Sans in the eye, "You got a problem, bone boy?"

"No, I'm just wondering what the fuck's goin' on."

"Ash is dating Grillby!" You wave your hands excitedly, "I know! I was so shocked too. But Grillbz is exactly her type." 

"Oh? How so?" Grillby's voice is a low rumble.

"You're _hot_." You say with a wink before you burst into laughter. 

The whole group rolls their eyes as Papyrus lets out a nyeh heh heh. 

"The fuck are you doing here too?" Sans turns to Mark, "Don't you have a gang to run?" 

"Things are already as stable as they're gonna get. I happen to be great at moving things forward, not that you would know." Mark glowers. He found out that you and Sans almost got together during the time he was busy settling the chaos, and started hanging around the shop a lot more, or whenever he could. 

"If you guys are done comparing your testosterone levels, you might want to get a move on. Debs and Papyrus are already past the gates." Ashley pulls her luggage bag behind her as Grillby moves to take it. 

"Damn, Grillbz, yer’ whipped." Sans throws a smirk at him when he walks by.

"Least I got the fuckin' balls to take care of my own lady." He says, unfazed. 

"You don't know a thing." Sans growls.

"Oh yes, I think I do from your endless nights whining at my counter like a lil’ bitch. But I am not in the mood to give your pathetic ass any advice. Not till you pay your fuckin' tab." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Debs. My heart is rooting for you.  
> Sans, get it together. A girl with a broken heart is an easy target!


	10. A splashing good time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get what you ask for, Sans.

"Let's go for a swim!" 

After a long flight and a tedious check in to the hotel, you’re finally at the beach!

You take your top off to reveal a turquoise bikini top. You weren't usually a fan of bikinis because they didn’t provide your chest enough support, but Ashley had insisted you pack it in.

“It’s the holidays!” She said, “Live a little! You don’t show your body off enough. It’s such a waste.”

At that moment, you were so caught up in the holiday mood that you had packed it in, but you kind of regret wearing it already. 

You’d be lying if you said that you didn’t want to show off a little bit to Sans. Not that he would change his mind, but maybe you could make him regret his choice at least a little bit, right?

But you look around you to see that Sans isn’t even around you. Strange, you thought you saw him a second ago.

“I sent the guys off to buy some drinks.” Ashley calls from beside you. 

She’s dressed in a sleek black tankini with strings laced at the side, highlighting her small waist.

“Where’s **your** bikini!” You cry out, feeling betrayed.

“Grillby asked if I could put on something more conservative.” She shrugs, “You’d think that for monsters who literally have some wandering around stark naked, they’d be a lot less concerned about articles of clothing.” 

“Whoa, since when were you so obedient?” You raise your eyebrows with a laugh as she rolls her eyes.

“It’s just a swimsuit, ain’t a big deal. Also…” She leans in to whisper to you, “He’s really bad at hiding his boner.” 

“Eeeew, TMI.” You cover your eyes with your palms and groan. That was waaaay too much information.

“I’m going to go play by the sea.” You say, walking towards the ocean. "Wanna come with?"

"Nah, I hate it when the sand sticks to my wet legs. I'll just enjoy the sun." 

How she could go to the beach and not play in the water was an absolute mystery to you. 

Hugging Kiwi to your chest, you wander along the shore as you take in the scene around you. You can’t help the jealousy and sadness that nibbles at your soul when you see couples having fun playing in the water and around the beach.

Plopping yourself on the ground, the tide comes just high enough to splash around your feet. 

You summon your magic and use the sand to create a sand-shaped pineapple surrounded by miniature figures of Spongebob squarepants and his friends.

“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” You distract yourself as you play around with the seawater and create your own bubble buddy and seat him beside you. 

“Guess you’re my only friend for now.” You giggle to your bubble buddy, tickled by your own childish antics.

“That sounds a little sad, maybe I could join you?” 

You look up to see a guy around your age looking over at you with a charming grin. His hair was kinda cool and spiked, too. 

“That’s okay, my friends will be back soon.” You smile back. 

“Oh, that’s a pity. I was looking for someone to hang out with for a short while since I’m on a break. I don’t really know anyone here.”

If it was only for a short moment, you suppose you didn’t really mind talking to the guy. It’s not like you had anything better to do.

“Where do you work?” You look around the beach. There’s nothing much around here.

“Over there. You see that blue bunny monster?” He points to a cart with a yellow and red umbrella. “We sell nice cream.”

“Nice cream? Is it a monster snack?” That piques your interest. You love anything monster-food related. 

“Yeah, you wanna try it? I can get you one.”

“Yeah! I do! But I can pay for it, no problem.” You hop up and pat the sand off your denim shorts. 

You make small talk on the way there as he asks the obvious question like what Kiwi’s doing on your shoulder. You give the standard casual reply as you choose a nice cream flavoured ‘Pink Sunshine’

“Is this as sweet as you? Aww, it’s handwritten!” You say as you read the writing on the inside of the wrapper.

“Yeah, that’s why it’s called nice cream! _Cool_ , isn’t it?” He chuckles as he pays for both of yours.

You burst into laughter when you realise he just made a pun. 

“Yeah, I’m a real _softie_ for ice cream. Anyway, you really don’t have to! You say as you go for your wallet, only to realise you left it with Ashley. “Damn.” 

“Guess it’s just _mint_ to be, then.” The guy winks at you, “Don’t worry, I’ve got the _inside scoop_ of an employee discount. Also, you can take it as my thanks for spending time with a lonely guy like me.”

You reach out with your magic to sense his emotions, and relax when you don’t sense any malicious intent.

“Alright, but if I see you again, I’m paying for some drinks.” You’re a friendly person by nature, and monster food was always your weak spot! 

Yeah, you could tell that he was kind of attracted to you, but whatevs. If he wasn’t, why would he wander over just to talk to you in the first place?

“I’d like that an _waffle_ lot.” He laughs as you both walk back down to the shoreline.

“So what are you doing here?”  
“I’m on holiday with a bunch of friends. Gotta _seas_ the moment, you know?” You laugh as you kick the surface of the water when it rides up to your feet.

“ _Whale,_ we definitely don’t wanna be _tide_ down. I’m Alex, and you are?”

“You can call me Debs.” You say as you turn around to beam at your new friend. Not everyone appreciated puns like you did! And you really didn’t have many friends of the same age because you never went to school. 

As you walk along the beach munching on your nice cream and with Kiwi on your shoulder, you suddenly stumble on a loose rock and fall down with a yelp. Alex, who attempted to catch you, ended up tripping on your feet as well and falls down on top of you.

You’re about to burst out laughing at how anime-like this seems when you hear a growl and Alex’s weight immediately disappears.

You sit up to see a growling skeleton with a flashing left eye and immediately turn your head over to where you hear a splash. You realise that Sans had tossed Alex off of you with his magic and worry that he might have hurt your new friend.

It’s only when you see Alex swimming back to shore that you relax.

“What the fuck Sans?!” You’re enraged at his audacity as your pick up your poor soaked rabbit and put her on your shoulder.

“What are you doing?” He growls.

“Uhm, nothing that is **your** problem?” 

You both glare at each other as Alex eventually comes up beside you, wiping the water off his face..

“Damn, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. Sorry, man.” He turns to Sans.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” You say pointedly as your continue to glare at Sans with your arms crossed. You lost your nice cream somewhere into the sea, but you’ll have time to cry for that later. 

Alex looks puzzledly between the two of you as tension continues to spark in the air.

“Well?” Your eyes widen in anger.

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to apologise?” You cry with exasperation, “You can’t just toss people like that.”

“What for? He’s not even injured.” He furrows his brow bones, refusing to back down.

“Is that the point? That’s not the point, obviously. You don’t fucking attack people for no good reason.” 

You grit your teeth in rage, wondering the fuck was Sans’ problem. Yeah, you could feel the jealousy pouring out of him, but so what? He didn’t have the damn right to be jealous. You were single and free to do whatever the hell you wanted to do. With anyone. Because that’s what **he** literally asked for. 

When Sans remains silent, you grab onto Alex’s wrist and walk away.

“Where the fuck are you going?” He yells after you.

You stop walking and interlock your hand with Alex’s before you turn around to smile sweetly, “Going on a date, obviously. Goodbye!” 

Alex raises his eyebrows in amusement, but he doesn’t say anything as he lets you lead him away from the drama. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had too much fun writing this, seriously HAHA


	11. Puzzles to solve

"So, a date, huh?" Alex laughs from behind you when you've gone far away from Sans.

You immediately let go of his hand, "Sorry! Thanks for playing along. Did you get injured just now?" 

You were so caught up with your own anger that you forgot to check.

"I'm not _shore_ . Was a little _shell shocked_ at first, but don't worry about it." He laughs, "I have to be getting back to work now, though, so I won't be able to give you that date. We could do it tomorrow if you want." 

"Yeah, uhm... I'm real sorry but I'm not reaaaaally interested in dating." You immediately feel bad and wave your hands, trying to explain.

"Ah, shame. But don't feel bad, I was half kidding." He tosses you that charming grin, "It's obvious you have something going on with that skeleton monster. If you change your mind, though, you know where to look for me. If you take me to dinner, I don't mind helping you to push him in the right direction." He winks as he waves goodbye.

You stand there and return the wave before wondering what to do next. You told Sans that were going on a date, so it would be lame if you went back too early. Well, it was time for an adventure then! 

-

After spending a few hours wandering the beach, you finally return to the group.

“There you are! I was just going to send someone to get you if you took any longer.” Ashley waves at you from afar. 

“Sorry!” You run up to her sheepishly. You wanted to come back a long time ago but you got a little lost. Okay, you got a lot lost.

“Debs!” Mark walks up to you, “If you wanted to go on a date, you could have just asked me.” He covers his heart with his hand painfully. He came on this holiday because he wanted to hang out with you, but you were already gone when he came back from buying what Ashley needed him to.

You just laugh in response as you apologise. Mark was always this way.

“Thanks for buying the drinks. What’dya have?”  
“I got your usual favourite, but I just saw sea tea in one of the shops nearby.”

“Sea tea?”

“Yeah, it’s a monster drink. Think you’d like it?” 

“Ooh, that sounds good! Where did you see it?”

“I’ll get it for you. You’d probably just get lost.” He laughs.

“Rude! Thanks Mark!” 

You settle down on the mat beside Ashley when he goes to get your drink for you. You’d normally go with him, but you were so tired already from trying to find your way back.

“So, you went on a date, huh? With a guy you just met? That’s unusual.” Ashley says while lying down in her chair.

“Nah, not really. Was just really angry, so I wanted Sans to think I did.” You giggle sheepishly.

“What? Then where were you all this time?” She turns to you.

“Just wandering around… mostly trying to find my way back to this place.” 

She stares at you for a long moment before she bursts out laughing, “You’re terrible.”

You stick your tongue out at her in response as you fill her in on what happened.

“Damn girl, you really know how to make him mad.”

“Tch, he started it. My life is soooooo dramatic.”

“Yeah, because you make it.” She rolls her eyes.

“Where is everyone?” You change the subject, giving up on defending yourself. Sigh, you were so misunderstood. 

“Papyrus said he wanted to try setting up some puzzles for everyone, Sans is out there somewhere, sulking in a corner” She waves in a general direction, “and I asked Grillby if he could help me get my bag from the hotel.”

The hotel was a short twenty minute walk from here, and Sans could have teleported there for Ashley if she wanted to ask him, but he was being grumpy, so she didn’t. 

Mark returns with your sea tea and although it is a little bit salty, you like it simply because it’s a monster drink. 

“I’m going to look for Papyrus!” You call out, “Anyone wanna come with me this time?” You giggle when Ashley gives you a pointed look. 

“I’ll wait here for Grillby. Maybe we’ll look for you after.” Ashley says from her chair.

“I’ll come with you.” Mark smiles as he walks along beside you.

“Green is a good look for you.” Mark compliments you as he pokes you in the side. “It’s surprising how you stay so thin despite all that junk you eat.”

“First of all, its turquoise, and thank you. But most importantly, I don’t eat junk!” You pout in mock defiance, but it’s true. You had the kind of body that most girls would die for. You suppose that the food probably goes to fuelling your magic, or endless energy. Damn, you felt so fidgety after that sea tea. 

“Race you to Papyrus!” You say as you take off beside him and he barks out a laugh as he chases after you. 

Despite your strange boost in speed, Mark still beats you to Papyrus.

“Hello humans!” Papyrus looks up from his contraption as you arrive in a giggling fit.

“What are you making, Papyrus?” You squat down beside him.

“Well it’s-” He turns to you before he suddenly lights up in a bright orange and chokes. 

“What’s wrong?” You pat him on the back, wondering if that helps in any way.

“Wh- What happened to your clothes, Human Debs!” He flusters.

“It’s a swimsuit! Look!” You point to a bunch of people in the distance. “They’re wearing bikinis too!” You say a little sheepishly. It wasn’t your usual look, so you were a little self conscious when he said that.

“I… I see! I thought that it was your underwear! Do pardon my sudden outburst.” His blush slowly fades away as he goes back to explaining his puzzle.

"You must change all the Xs to Os before stepping on this flat rock." 

"How do I do that?" You look at the maze of Xs that he's written into the sand.

"You step on it, of course!" 

"What??" You walk over in disbelief and step on it, watching in amazement when it really does switch to an O. Stepping on it again, it changes into a triangle and stays that way.

"What happens if I mess up?"

"You have to reset it all back to Xs by stepping on the flat rock!" 

"Oooh! I wanna try!" 

You and Mark take turns figuring out the puzzle, careful not to knock over the walls that Papyrus has made so carefully with magic bones and twigs.

"WAHAHAHAH I AM THE TRUE PUZZLE CHAMPION!!" You cry out with joy when you finally solve it. 

"What are you guys doing?" Ashley walks over with Grillby. 

"Puzzles!" You answer gleefully. 

"Wow, sure haven't seen those in a long time." Grillby rumbles, squatting down beside the puzzle to examine it closely. It's a quality piece of work." 

"Nyeh-heh-heh! What else would you expect from the Great and Terrible Papyrus!"

“The whole gang is here!” You cry out, “Let’s compete!” 

“Your sulky boyfriend isn’t.” Ashley teases you.

“He is not my boyfriend!”

“He is not her boyfriend!” 

You and Mark call out simultaneously.

You glower while Ashley bursts into laughter and Grillby chuckles. 

“Indeed! He is not.” Papyrus chimes in, “Here, I mean. Would you go get him please, Human Debs?”

“Me? But-”

“I could go.” Mark offers.

“I do not mean to offend you, tiny human male, but I highly doubt that Sans would return, should you be the one to go instead.”

You look between Mark and Papyrus and burst into laughter. It wasn’t really fair since Papyrus was huge, but Mark really did look tiny in comparison.

“He won’t come back if I’m the one either.” You stick your tongue out, “Since he’s not here because of me.”

“Perhaps, Human Debs, but if it is not too much to ask, I would like for you to try anyway.”

You glance over at Ashley, who shrugs, before you decide to wander around to look for him.

You suddenly remember that you can reach for your magic, and try to sense for his. Everyone had their own unique feel to their magic. And since he was such a powerful monster, his magic signature was a lot stronger than average, and it was also easier to recognise because he was so familiar to you.

You eventually find him sitting somewhere on the beach, looking out towards the endless sea around him.

You walk up and sit down beside him. 

"So… whatcha' looking at?" 

His eyelights flick to you before blushing a brilliant red and turning back to the sea.

"How was your date?" 

You sigh as you pick up a seashell beside you and toss it into the water, "Didn't." 

"Didn't?" 

"Yeah, I didn't actually go on a date." You giggle sheepishly, "Not that he wasn't interested, okay! But I didn't." 

"Oh." 

"Yup, just wanted to make you mad." You wink and laugh at his miffed expression.

"Pftt- Wasn't mad." He tries to defend himself.

"Oh yeah, sure you weren't." 

Sans hates himself for secretly feeling relieved that you'd turned the guy down in the end. He knew he shouldn't have gotten involved, but he'd acted before he was even aware that he'd activated his magic. Things were going so well between the two of you until he fucked it up again. 

Why? Why did he always fuck up extra much when it came to you? 

You should lead him back to the group, but you don't say anything as you sit there beside him. You really want to be alone with him. 

"Hey, could you teach me?" You ask, breaking the silence. 

"What?" 

"Teach me. How to use my magic." 

"You already know how to use your magic." 

"Yeah, but I can't help feeling like there's so much more I could do." 

Everything you know how to do with magic was self taught, obviously, and you just went by feel. Actually, you didn't really experiment all that much before the monsters came to the surface. Using magic always made you feel like you were different from everyone else, and you hated it because it made you feel more alone and alienated than you already were. But now, you feel like you could start to accept and maybe even be proud of that part of you. 

"Why d'ya think I can help you with that?" 

"You're really strong and can use your magic so naturally. Like when you suddenly appeared and tossed Alex in a split second." You snicker as he bristles at the mention of that guy. "Anyway, I want to reach that state. There's nobody else I could ask. Please?"

Sans thinks about it for a moment. Maybe if you had a better grasp on your magic, you could defend yourself better. Maybe you wouldn't have gotten your arms broken. 

"... I don't know much about your magic, so we'll have to experiment. And I haven't done that since…. Even way long ago underground." 

"That's fine, I don't mind!" 

"I'll also ask Papyrus." Sans thinks, "He has experience training monsters." 

"Ooh, perfect. Thanks, Sans!" 

"Hey, kid." 

"Yeah?" 

"M'sorry." 

"...I'll forgive you if you buy me a nice cream." 

"I can do better than that. I'll buy you two." He grins, the first real one today. 

"Deal!" 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alex: Did you just bring me on this novel so I could be cannon fodder?  
> Author: /sweats/ n-no? I mean, at least you're not alone, there's Mark-  
> Mark: What about me? You mean I don't have a shot?  
> Author: ((;ﾟДﾟ))  
> -
> 
> I wasn't sure how much plot to add in to this because I don't know how far I want to take this novel in relation to the parent one. Especially since it'd be boring to have repeats for some of you who actually read both, right? But have some anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> HMU if you enjoyed this read! Check out my parent work [here ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21584209/chapters/51462316) if you're a fan of the MC :)


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